Are Tooltips UX or Confessions?

Let’s play a game.
You open a dApp.
You’re greeted with:

• A dense table
• Six tabs
• A graph that looks like a heart monitor
• And a “Connect Wallet” button floating like a boss level

Now open TikTok.

You’re greeted with… just a video. And then another. And another.
No signup. No dashboard. No friction. Just vibes. Just flow.

So here’s the question:

Why does Web3 look like Excel — when it could feel like TikTok?

The UX Blueprint We’ve Been Copying Is Boring by Default

Most dApps inherit their design DNA from fintech dashboards, not human experiences. But users don’t wake up excited to read spreadsheets. They wake up wanting to explore, discover, scroll, swipe.

The interfaces people love today are immersive, reactive, snackable. And Web3 is… none of those things right now.

What If dApps Were Feed-Based?

Let’s rethink the surface layer:

• Swap apps show live trending trades like TikTok For You pages
• NFT marketplaces feel like Pinterest feeds instead of Craigslist listings
• DAO tools show proposal stories and team updates, not just vote counts
• Wallets display transaction highlights, not just TX hashes and decimals

The design language shifts from:

“Here’s everything you can do — now you figure it out”

to

“Here’s what’s happening right now — want to join in?”We Don’t Need Dashboards. We Need Discovery.

Dashboards are for experts. Feeds are for everyone. People learn by watching others, not reading tooltips. They want to see action in context, not in columns.

What does a “creator feed” look like in a DAO tool? Or a “trending strategies” tab inside a DeFi app? Or a “what your wallet peers are doing” card in a wallet?

These aren’t gimmicks — they’re bridges.

Why Should Web3 UX Feel Like TikTok?

Because TikTok solved the hardest part of UX: Getting users from “curious” to “hooked” in seconds.

It does this by:

• Replacing complexity with flow
• Frontloading the payoff
• Personalizing without asking
• Removing every ounce of friction before value

Imagine If…

• Connecting a wallet showed a dynamic feed of what’s happening in your network
• You scroll through proposals like Reddit threads, reacting before committing
• Token swaps are pre-filled, previewed, and visualized like stories
• The app keeps learning — not from your input forms, but from your behaviors

It’s not about turning DeFi into dance videos. It’s about building interfaces that feel alive, not clinical.

We Need Less Enterprise. More Emotion.

Web3 products shouldn’t feel like tools. They should feel like spaces. And people don’t explore new spaces through CSVs, they explore through stories, signals, and social proof.

Lets Build Apps That Feel Less Like Excel, More Like Exploration

Because at the end of the day, the next billion users won’t need dashboards to feel smart. They’ll need feeds that make them feel something.

What If dApps Felt Like TikTok, Not Excel? was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.