Identity Manager æpp

This is an early stage design concept. We are working on all æternity æpps in an iterative fashion, incorporating user/community input at every round.

Identities Overview

At the core of the æternity user experience are identities. Each identity can be either Private or Public and has an account balance as well additional, optional data associated with it. This optional data could be a publicly registered name, profile info, or other characteristics we may add in the future. The cost of transactions within all other æpps is covered by authorizing an app to use a specific identity and its token balance. In a native mobile environment this is handled via the Identity Manager æpp.

Core Challenge

During our original rounds of usability testing we discovered that the concept of identities is something that is not entirely clear/intuitive to most users. The ownership of one’s data/identity is a powerful feature of blockchain technologies, yet it is also something which most users do not understand the immediate benefit from.

Solution

In order to make identities more relatable we decided to represent them as cards, visually similar to credit/debit or ID cards. This:

gives the user a familiar, visual representation of an abstract concept;
makes it more clear that every identity has a token balance associated with it. Each card can be given a name, shows its token balance, and other profile info (ex. photo) stored off the blockchain.

In addition to the cards we introduced a conversational interface for the creation of identities. This allows new users to understand identity creation process more easily by dividing it in small chunks & decisions. This interface also allows expert users to move quickly through the process of creating an identity.

Functionality

You can try the click through prototype here. A walkthrough of the app functionality can be found below. A full walkthrough is also available on GitHub.

https://github.com/aeternity/aepp-prototypes/blob/master/base-aepp/identity-management.md

Introduction

When users first open the Identity Manager æpp they are greeted with a multistep tutorial explaining the core functionality.

Onboarding

For the user onboarding, which allows the user to create their first identity, we chose a conversational interface. This provides a smooth, step-by-step first experience of æternity ecosystem.

Identities

Once the user is in the æpp they are presented with the Dashboard, where they can see the combined details of all identities as well as the details of each identity.

The user can also browse identities via the My Identities view:

They can also search for a specific identity and see the details associated with it:

The user can transfer token between their identities:

They can also see the all authorized æpps and their associated transactions:

Next Steps

We conducted a round of private testing with the designs in this post. The overall feedback thus far has been incredibly positive. We will post an update once we have incorporated the input / at the next round.

Please feel free to send us feedback at one of our channels.

æternity Blog