The labels that feel precise to insiders often push everyone else away
You’ve probably seen it:
“You’re about to sign a message.”
“Slippage too high. Check mempool.”
“This proposal has reached quorum.”
“Insufficient gas.”
These aren’t tooltips. They’re Web3’s wall of fog.
Behind every piece of jargon is an assumption:
The user should know what this means.
But most don’t. And they shouldn’t have to.
Language Is a Filter, Not a Feature
Jargon is how we signal tribe. It’s how devs talk to devs, founders talk to VCs, and insiders talk to themselves. It’s also why most dApps feel like they weren’t built for you — but for a version of you that read a glossary before onboarding.
Words Should Invite, Not Intimidate
Let’s compare
No information was lost. But clarity was gained — because someone bothered to translate.
The Myth of Educated Users
You often hear:
“We’re building for power users.”
“Our audience already knows.”
But Web3 has no final user. People evolve from beginner to advanced inside your product — if you let them. The right design doesn’t dumb things down. It creates on-ramps, not tests.
Style Sheets of Status
There’s an aesthetic to insider lingo — like naming a button “Bond” instead of “Deposit & Lock”.
But design isn’t where you prove how deep in the rabbit hole you are. It’s where you bring others down with you, safely. Good interface culture doesn’t posture. It patiently codes context into copy.
What If Jargon Was Optional?
Imagine a UI that let you:
Switch between basic and advanced copyHover to see human-friendly versions of crypto termsGet plain language prompts before committing to an action
This isn’t dumbing down. This is choosing language that opens doors instead of building walls.
Words Are Interfaces Too
The next 100 million users won’t come through wallet extensions or airdrops. They’ll come through words that feel like they were written for them.
And the first product that truly speaks to users like people — not protocol nodes — will win.
Jargon Isn’t UX was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.