Designing and building the miniapp has been a fascinating learning experience. Two challenges stand out:

Mobile viewport, even on desktop: This requires thoughtful mobile UX while avoiding mobile-specific interactions like dragging, pinching, or horizontal scrolling. I've found it easier to avoid them. Skill issue, probably, but this limitation forces simplicity, which is usually a good thing.

Miniapps as a format: This is meta, but I've started thinking of it like building a house on planet Farcaster. I'm in a place where lots of people are walking around and yelling at each other, and I have the ability to put a door in front of them. The door has to be cool enough for someone to walk through.

Once someone is inside, I need to orient them FAST.

Then I need to give them something to do. A way to participate. I should also provide additional context for those who want to dig deeper.

Despite having access to the Farcaster network, making the studio feel social has been surprisingly difficult. Initially, it felt like a single-player experience.

For the homepage specifically, I've been using a "bulletin board" as my mental model. It's a canvas for dynamic content like notices, inquiries, and directions. I'm trying to anticipate and prioritize the context visitors will want.

This framework helped solve several layout issues, but it didn't immediately make things feel social.

Until I accidentally wrote "billboard" instead of "bulletin board" in a planning document and remembered: I'm selling ad space.

I won't spoil the decisions that followed, but I'll share them once the studio is live.

Side note: I've gotten into the habit of using my art as cover images for my Paragraph posts, even when they're unrelated to the content. In a way, my writing is ad space for my art. And/or my Zora? This post's cover image is 'spacing.' This post is paired with $usersteen. I am a living business.

Before algorithmic feeds, social media was about spending time on profile pages.

It was personal. Users curated their pages based on aesthetics more than social signalling. They communicated with instead of at each other.

Gardens. It was dope.

Here's my Zora profile:

From a design perspective, it's clean.

There's a coin-to-social flow that is intuitive despite being uncommon. The social links should be under or next to 'Followers' and 'Following' instead of under the coin stats.

'Held by...' under the CTA buttons can go; it's redundant with 'Top Holders'.

Anyway, I've been concepting profile pages recently.

They won't have profile tokens like Zora, but they will have lots of tokens and stats, so Zora has been a great reference.

The balance of financial and social elements is top of mind.

As is personalization, CTAs, media, and navigation.

My pages will be pretty minimalist, and prioritize social > financial elements.

Version 1 of my app doesn't have profile pages, so more on this another time.

After launch, I'll write about the UI/UX thought process on the pages I do have.

zora is for grids

A visual study

https://paragraph.com

Vertical lines appear thinner than horizontal lines of the same weight. This makes 9:16 feel tall. Weird tall.

In person, on 55"+ displays, it's impressive.

It also works well for mobile; we know this because of short-form social media. It displays relatively large.

The digital flexibility is worth pushing past reels and vidz.

Jpg+gif 9:16 is a massive creative opportunity. I think it's a pathway for digital art to scale.

I've been experimenting with it more on zora, and want to see how long I can go before going insane or bored.

(Same-Day Update) Zora web uses the same cascading grid as Zora mobile. 9:16 is king.

This post is paired with $usersteen.

This image is so disturbing. I feel like I pulled off what I was going for and more, considering how it displays in different formats. Like the cover image for this post. Or a square, or pfp.

Zora is an interesting arena because on profiles, images display in squares on web and natural-ratio on mobile.

I'm pressure testing the 9:16 canvas, trying to optimize for multiple formats. This one will be cool on zora, but it won't work as a pfp.

Next image on zora will optimize for all 3. It's worth noting all the 9:16 is 4k, so everything works on large displays too.

It's also worth noting this post is paired with my zora profile.

https://zora.co/coin/base:0xe109c72df2fcb08cb2b8a5213e3c37e9e1ceccf1

Exhibit B: Desktop Profile

So it's noteworthy that upon starting only my second post, a pattern emerged.

The original title for this was "On Format & Simulations." I wanted to write about aspect ratios in the context of 'Simulations,' and art project I'm publishing on Zora. Probably one of the few art projects on Zora erc20 version.

I typed the title in and realized my first post, "On Rodeo/New Game," followed a similar structure. I discussed Rodeo, a publishing tool, in the context of 'New Game,' an older art project. I use project loosely; Rodeo was for experiments with pixel art.

Framework: Personal Experience -> Broader Context.

I'm most comfortable talking about visual art right now, but I hope this framework facilitates more writing across different areas of interest.

I didn't intend to write about writing, but going through the process was informative. The next post will actually dive into aspect ratios. Finally.

Until then, here's 'shimmers.'

To this point, I've mostly been publishing two projects on Zora: LOBOTOMY_V1, and Still Life. Zora's been screwing around with collections and removed the feature without an announcement. Supposedly, they're coming back, but the initial change forced me to pause those projects and reconsider what I'm working on.

I avoided Rodeo because I didn't want to publish to two single-feed platforms, but with Zora on pause, I figured I'd start something fresh on Rodeo. For now, it feels like a good venue to publish works in a series that I've been workshopping for several years.

The most recent iteration of the idea is called 'New Game,' the first version of which was published on Yoyo in 'New Game v1'. Since there are no collection contracts on Rodeo, this iteration doesn't technically have a name, but for all intents and purposes, it's 'New Game v2.'

The gist is surreal pixel works born from my photography. Video Games were a huge part of my life growing up and they were my portal into the internet via multiplayer and forums. I don't game these days, but they remain a source of endless inspiration for my art. I have always wanted to create a game; New Game lets me explore that space. My work focuses on environments, and this project is no different. With each piece, I attempt to craft a game world that feels nostalgic, uncanny, and meditative. Each title is a verb, intended to guide the experience.

Publishing these works almost daily has been an extremely satisfying practice. Focusing on a single project and departing from straight-up photography has felt freeing. Every piece feels like a creative step forward, and I'm producing some of my favorite work ever.

Idk how long I'll keep this series going on Rodeo; I really want to go back to working on contract-based collections, though there isn't a great tool for that at the moment. I hope what we're cooking at Enjoy becomes that tool.

Until then, keep up with the project on Rodeo, check out the view.art gallery (all the work is 4K for digital displays), and mint the latest, 'grow'!!!