atjn/blockchain-visualizer

Helping people understand discovery- and publishing algorithms in peer-to-peer networks through an interactive visualization of nodes in a blockchain.

blockchain-visualizer's Issues

Help new users understand the tool

This is a very broad issue that can be split into more specific sub-issues.

When a new user opens the page, they're greeted with A LOT of text, and they have no idea what they're seeing in the visualization. If they want to properly use the tool, they'll have to read through all of the text (maybe multiple times) while using the tool, to slowly get a feel for what it is showing them.

It would be much better if the site took new users through a guided tour, where it would point to all the important bits and step-by-step explain what they do.
There should also be small tooltips for all buttons/settings, so that even a seasoned user can quickly figure out what a thing does, without having to read through the entire wall of text to find that specific detail. Tooltips could also be expanded to the nodes, connections and blocks that is shown in the visualization itself.

Some of the text should maybe be moved to a separate page or pages, to make it easier to navigate.

Expand unit tests

The unit tests defined in the test folder only cover a few of the functions in the code base. Ideally, they would cover all functions.

Completed:

• algorithms
• controls
• nodeMethods
• simulation
• simulationHandlers
• simulationMethods
• ui
• utilities

Create end-to-end tests

We should have some sort of end-to-end tests to make sure that the entire application isn't just crashing despite all of the code looking fine.

It would also be nice to run a lighthouse test and make sure that no scores have regressed.

Make settings/controls scrollable

If users have small screens or use scaling, then the settings might be so long that they continue beyond the screen. There is currently no way for the user to access those settings.

It should be relatively easy to implement a scrollbar to allows the user to scroll from the top settings to the bottom settings.

Add link to GitHub repository

The website should link back to this GitHub repository to make it easier for users to get more information about the project and/or contribute to it.

Fix timeline styling

The timeline that is shown under the visualization is not properly responsive. On desktops, it doesn't span the entire width, and on mobile devices, it is too wide, resulting in weird wrapping behavior that makes it block part of the blockchain visualization.