Launched: Nostr UX pattern library
Yesterday I launched nostr-ux.com. It’s opinionated, evidence-based UX research for building Nostr apps that don’t lose users.
Why this exists: Nostr has a retention problem. 30-day retention trends to 0%. We’re at ~10k daily active users. Posts disappear and followers vanish when switching apps. Every app feels like beta software.
These aren’t protocol problems—they’re product problems. Fixable ones.
The research covers six critical patterns:
- Onboarding
- Content discovery
- Core interactions
- Performance
- Progressive complexity
- Cross-client consistency
Plus anti-patterns and validation checklists. Over 100 citations backing the recommendations.
Each pattern shows the problem, the cost of getting it wrong, and how to implement the fix.
This is what Sovereignty without sacrifice looks like in practice. Nostr has the better protocol—censorship-resistant, user-owned identity, no platform capture. But none of that matters if the UX drives people away in the first two minutes.
Freedom tech loses when we make users choose between sovereignty and usability. This is about removing that forced choice.
Open questions I’m thinking through:
- How do we get Nostr builders to actually use these patterns?
- Should this expand to other freedom tech verticals?
- Is there a way to measure impact?
Early feedback and pull requests welcome. This is v1. I’ll iterate based on what builders need.