This is my personal review which I was accepted to perform as part of this review campaign. These are my honest comments about this projects, which have not been influenced by any other ones in this thread.
I would like to thank to the Zenland campaign managing team for the chance.
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About me:Before diving into the review I usually like to offer a brief summary about me as client/user so the people behind projects I review know what kind of client/user I represent within the demographics of the cryptographic community.
I am a crypto currency user which is mostly into Bitcoin has not interacted with smart contracts often in the past and only used DeFI twice in my life, however I know how to use Metamask and other Ethereum wallets to a basic level. I don't hold any Ethereum, any Binance coin, Cardano or any Smart Contract native token at the moment and I have never checked smart contract code in an explorer before.
Keeping this in mind, my experience will serve as a test to see how intuitive this service is in the eyes of a very casual Smart Contract user.
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First impression:In this section I'll present my first impressions on the features, design and functionality of the main webpage of Zenland.
The first impression I got from the platform is that this is an indeed tidy, well organized and minimalist webpage, which is ideal in my opinion to present a project of this nature. However, I would definitely ask for a dark mode switch on a corner of the interface of this web so this one can be used during night in a comfortable way without tiring one's eyes.
The animations are fluid and they are well made and looped correctly so they won't lose the illusion of movement and fluidity. Whoever you hired to animate these they did a good job, in my opinion.
While I was scrolling down the web to read more about this project and the service its offers to those seeking for a decentralized escrow platform I had a little bit of a problem this is part when a brief explanation is shown, I ended up scrolling the info-graph instead the webpage itself even though I did not want to. Also, the info-graph sensibility to the mouse scrolling is high, it only takes a small spin to move to the next step on the explanation, it would be good to make this movement a bit slower and less sensitive.
After reading information on the web I reached the bottom on this one and I realized there were some social media accounts to check.
I decided to check the linkedin, Yotube, Reddit and Twitter.
In the case of Linkedin and Reddit, there is not much to say, everything seemed okey for a small project that is starting to gain traction, I wisged to check Linkedin further but I could not without an account.
However, I noticed the Twitter account seems to be terminated or removed, please check and correct this to give a more professional impression to your potential users, if you are not willing to have an official Twitter yet, you can remove it for now and stick to Reddit, Discord and Youtube.
I checked your Youtube channel, again it looked okey for a new project that is supposed to grow overtime, I also took the liberty to watch your only video on the introduction to this project: I must say the music selection is good for a short tutorial and it was straightforward, but I'd recommend you to add a voice explaining the process along the interaction with the smart contract takes place, that would help even more people to understand in the future how to use this service even faster and in a more effective way.
In the very bottom on the web I found the copyright, terms of service and privacy policy. I would like you to move these words/link a little bit higher and perhaps increase the size of the font, it looks a little bit closer to the end of the interface than it should.
I also noticed the website seems to have its cryptographic security credentials in order up until December this year, hopefully this continues to be this way, having these security credentials up-to-date helps not only with the security but also to give a good impression to the users.
As you may know already, some internet browsers do not allow people to easily access webpages without valid credentials. Good job there.
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Interacting with the application:Now in this section I move onto using two different Metamask running on two different browsers so I can test a escrowed transaction on the Binance Test Network.
I previously installed Metamask in my browsers and proceeded to create a contract with the wallet that is supposed to belong to the buyer (the person who wishes to send crypto in exchange of a good/service).
This first time I encountered when I entered the app was this small note on the current state of the project and the fact it has not been audited yet. The sincerity is very appreciated and I think the addition of this small message is a right decision.
Without further ado, I clicked on the button to connect my Metamask wallet to Zenland. It prompted me to sign a message from the wallet to prove my ownership over it, I appreciate you explained that signing a message does not translate into a spending of funds or fees, that will definitely help new users who are not sure about fees that come while using a smart contract.
I signed the message and I could access immediately to the interface which allowed me to create a contract. I added the information that was required from me and the other part (the seller) and scrolled down.
I would like you somehow to highlight more the "It's me" buttons in this section, it was not a problem to me but it would be ideal if it was clear these are buttons and not just text/ an hyperlink.
Also, if possible, it would be great to change the color of all the information buttons/hints "(i)", make them blue and a little bit bigger for people with a worse sight to notice them easier, since it blends a bit with the white background. I had no problem with them but others may, though.
I liked how one can choose how the fees associated with the escrow services are paid: either paid by one of the negotiating parts or divided between them.
Very good idea there.
I created the contract and I moved onto my other account (the seller's wallet) to approve the contract from this end. I was eager to see how the application would react to the seller logging in, presenting the request for approval.
I noticed you also have as feature a built in chat to ease communication between both parties. I tested it and it seemed to work as intended, the messages were sent quickly, nothing to be corrected here, I liked it.
As soon as I logged in using the seller's wallet, I realized I had some pending notifications regarding both the contract I was suppose to approve and the message I sent from the buyer's wallet.
Even though I liked this feature (since it is also used in exchanges like Binance), I believe the team of Zenland would make the approval requests more explicit so they can be easier noticed by users. For example, this kind of notifications are used in exchanges when the exchange want their costumers to know about bonuses or optional contests, but when it is about more important things (like transactions) they also send e-mails, messages to one's phone, etc; because these are more important things they want to be sure their customers be aware of.
Since you do not have those possibilities, I believe you should have an additional notification button exclusive for contract requests, for example.
Make sure the user can tell when they receive a request, highlight the button somehow and add a small notification sound.
In the future your app could be used for people with a relatively high volume of deals per day/week and they need to be alerted properly whenever they need to approve a contract and realize as soon as possible.
After approval, I continued by deploying the contract with the terms both parties read and accepted.
In my personal opinion, this color choice for the side messages does not look good with the light theme of the app, I can read it but I seems to be too "fluorescent" for a light theme. If I was using this app at night switching from other platforms that have a dark theme to this one I would definitely be uncomfortable to read these.
I placed both wallets next to each other so I could go through the process easier
I transferred de 1 tBUSD to the smart contract. I would suggest to change the name of this step from "Transfer" to "Transfer to Contract", "Funding contract", "Depositing in contract" or something similar to make it easier for newbies to understand they are funding the smart contract itself.
I went through the fulfillment process, not much to say here, very straightforward as well.
I just needed to read the information concerning both timers when I set them and while they were running, very clever, this way not only the seller has a set time to fulfill their part but also an extra timer for the buyer to check whether they are satisfied with the service/product.
In case of dispute I assume a third party who is part of Zenland team would intervene and analyze the case.
I also like the review system one can use to rate the counterpart. It would be useful to know what would be happen if someone sent a false or malicious review after the completion of a deal. These cases are addressed in P2P markets, like the one in Binance.
It is excellent that the chat also functions as a log to those actions that are performed along all the process, so both parties know where they are standing at any moment.
In general, I believe this process was easy even for someone like me who does not interact with contracts often.
- After finishing the deal/contract:After finishing with the transaction I decided to check other things around the app.
It is very useful this service shows a log of those contracts we have opened before and the status of each one of those. I'd wish there as an option to export the information of these contracts to PDF, for example, so we can have our own register of contracts on our computers inside a folder. Other formats would be appreciated as well.
I also I realized there is an option to customize one´s profile on this application. I tried to change my name and it allowed me to do so without fees so I came to the conclusion the profile information is stored off-chain, which it is not a problem to me, personally.
-Conclusion:Zenland is a good project with a good potential to occupy a place in the decentralize escrow market, still needs some polishing but in its state it is pretty much functional and I am satisfied with how it worked.
I would add some message in the app's main webpage (just before connecting to Metamask) to let know users that every time they interact with a smart contract a fee to the network itself must be paid, so Ethereum users will know what to expect, let us not forget ETH network can be expensive sometimes, this may help people to save some money by using a cheaper network, in case Ethereum is congested.
Thank you and have a good day.
Edit: Payment received.
Good luck with your proyect, Zenland.
