Vega Console: Workspaces
I sat down with a designer on Vega, Michael Campbell to talk about one of its standout features: Workspaces
There is a seemingly endless selection of cryptocurrency platforms in operation today. The vast majority of them appear to prioritise mass adoption and a simple interface so as to lower entry barriers. From my very first interaction with Vega’s testnet, it was evident that the intentions behind the design of the Vega Console were a little more ambitious. I was welcomed with an invitation to create my own customised trading environment. This feature is called ‘workspaces’ and I (virtually) sat down with Vega’s designer to learn more.
“Workspaces allow users to customise what they have in their trading interface and adjust how it is laid out.” Campbell explains. “It originates in the fact that users have different needs from each other. With workspaces, the user has control of what components (order tickets, charts, order books, positions panel etc) they see and how they are arranged. Something like this exists on many crypto exchanges, but in most cases, the amount of changes you can make are limited. One common and significant limitation is that a user can not normally view multiple markets in a single workspace. On Console you can. This is useful if you are trading on correlated markets, the same underlying with different maturities, or just want to see different markets on one screen. We’ve seen many trading setups that make use of multiple screens. Workspaces allow users to have different views on different screens. Console’s workspaces also allow you to tab views into groups, so you could have a bunch of charts set to different intervals all there ready to switch to. This is just the beginning of the workspace features and the customisations we hope to make possible with Console.”
Workspaces not only enable a personalised user interface, but they also facilitate — thanks to the ‘tabs’ feature — the creation of multiple environments. For example, I can rearrange all the windows on the screen, add new data points and delete them. I can open multiple charts side by side and easily compare numerous market data in a way that suits a particular style, and all individual workspaces are automatically saved (I can easily access them in the future from the tabs bar).
This level of customisation and complexity is rarely seen in other crypto platforms. What was the reason for going in quite the opposite direction and designing a more complex and data-reach interface?
“Users in this space have very bespoke needs. There is no one user that’s like any other. If you spend too long designing something based on what you think a user needs, you’ll probably get it quite wrong for the next user. So the idea was to build something that was customisable. Good defaults and trying to make as few assumptions as possible about what users want. This allows them to create an environment that suits their needs.”
When I used Vega Console for the first time, it took me a few minutes to learn how to use workspaces. There seems to be a bit of a tradeoff (accommodating flexibility requires satisfying a larger set of requirements, which results in complexity and usability compromises). What was your approach when it comes to weighing the relative importance of flexibility versus usability?
“We are doing something quite different, and it’s a challenge because we want to provide a very comfortable environment once the user is set up, and we are willing for the new users to experience some of the initial pain in order to achieve that. We built some of the fundamentals like customisable workspaces very early on, and that meant that when people use the console for the first time, it is a little brittle […] We are still working on improving the experience for someone that lands on the platform for the first time, but what we don’t want is for our minimum viable product to look like any other crypto exchange. Once we’ve established that, we will build a better onboarding and learning experience on top.”
Vega is an open public blockchain, not unlike Ethereum or Bitcoin, and it will be open-sourced at some point. So, ultimately its long-term future depends on the success of the network and the value created for everyone in the ecosystem, including those developing the code, Vega Console, and perhaps other user interfaces. With that in mind, how do you envision the short and long-term evolution of Vega Console, and what other add-ons or complementary platforms could potentially be built on Vega by the community or 3rd parties?
“There is still loads that we want to do and improve. I’ve spent some time on a trading desk with professional traders, and I’ve seen that they need a certain level of detail and complexity to do their job well, but they also use multiple platforms. So Vega Console could be just a part of their setup. They could have their internal tools, other exchanges, and all the layers could overlap with each other…. I envision that in the future, third parties would be able to build their own modules/views for Vega Console. For example, you could pipe in data from another source into the console so you could see that data next to your data in Console. What we really want to do is make the integration between that 3rd party data go way beyond just a data feed. Eventually, you could interact with it and use it as part of your workflow.”
Vega Console’s user interface is not yet finished, and many features are being added almost weekly. Engaging with an interface that is more than just another replica of the same design used in so many platforms is a refreshing experience. Anyone interested in trying out workspaces and Vega testnet can do this here and to find out more about Vega please visit vega.xyz
Disclaimer: This material should not be taken as the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation to engage in investment transactions. Trading digital assets involve significant risk and can result in the loss of your invested capital. You should ensure that you fully understand the risk involved and take into consideration your level of experience, investment objectives and seek independent financial advice if necessary. The author is a founding member of Vega’s Community Core program.
