I want to start by saying I really appreciate the vision behind OGTracker. The concept is solid and has the potential to become an invaluable tool for the Polkadot community. That said, I have some concerns about the proposed budget of $600,000+, which feels excessive for a project that doesn’t appear to require such a large team or full-time resources to operate effectively.

Over the past few months, I’ve personally reached out to the OGTracker team multiple times, offering to assist with a redesign and major UX improvements—even pro bono. Unfortunately, I’ve been met mostly with silence, which is disheartening given the tool's current state. While the concept is great, the execution falls short—the UX, in particular, renders the tool almost unusable in its current form.

I worry that the current team may not have the agility or background needed to deliver the improvements quickly and efficiently. If there’s openness to a conversation about restructuring, I’d be more than willing to help “right the ship,” building a leaner, more effective team with a clear UX-driven vision.

I’ve also been exploring the feasibility of creating a similar tool with a more streamlined approach and a much more UX friendly design, at a fraction of the proposed budget. However, I’d much rather see OGTracker succeed with the right adjustments.

I share this not to criticize but because I truly believe in what OGTracker could become—and I want to see it succeed for the benefit of the entire Polkadot ecosystem. I hope we can have an honest dialogue about the path forward.

Voting abstain for now.

@OG Tracker

With all due respect, the current UX/UI is arguably sloppy and has lots of room for improvement.

This is coming from a professional UX/UI designer who has worked for fortune 500 companies, ran a successful design agency serving hundreds of clients for over a decade, and someone that wants to use OGT daily but it's simply too painful to do so with its current functionality.

And to be even more candid, if fixing the usability of OG Tracker is not a high priority in this funding round, it makes little to no sense for the community to continue pouring money into an initiative that can be replicated with a better solution within <6-12 months and less than half the funding.

The fact is the current OG Tracker website breaks basic design principals and it's current look and feel makes it harder than it has to be to track progress among the Polkadot ecosystem.

Some Quick Examples

1. Referenda titles are truncated (even on large desktop devices) making it hard to tell what a ref represents without clicking into it to view more details. "Treasury Proposal: Marketing an" is all you see from this screen even on a 27" iMac as an example: https://app.ogtracker.io/all?status=InProgress

2. There are buttons with no labels such as the icons in the footer on all pages (e.g., the glasses icon), that the average user cannot identify its purpose, requiring users to click random buttons just to see what happens.

3. Listings display proposer addresses instead of verified user names, forcing users to click into each referendum to discern who is behind it. This unnecessary friction hampers navigation. Example: https://app.ogtracker.io/all?status=InProgress

4. The details page for a referendum does not include a OGT Review (thus when you rollover/click this button, it loads and nothing happens). Example: https://app.ogtracker.io/smallSpender/167

5. Initiatives such as integrating Grill Chat appear to be done lazily with no consideration to UX/UI whatsoever. The current implementation slaps a "G" logo on the footer that opens up a site-wide chat room. This is obviously not the best way to handle this integration, as discussions are going to happen per referendum - not across the entire website. This is likely one of the reasons why nobody has really used the Grill Chat feature yet (it's literally just 3 people saying "hello," "cool," and "hi there" so far).

The Bigger Picture
These examples are just the surface of broader usability and design issues. The website consistently breaks basic design principles, making it harder than necessary to track progress within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Proposed Solution
To demonstrate what’s possible, I’ve created a new design preview in under 48 hours — without input from your team. Preview here: https://simplified-impact-303574.framer.app/

Imagine what we could do together with more time and a proper feedback loop. That said, if you still don't think that the preview I shared showcases a cleaner, more functional look and feel, highlighting how quickly this can be addressed with proper focus, then simply let me know and I will step down and wish you the best of luck with your project.

Final Thoughts
Fixing these issues is not just about aesthetics; it’s about ensuring the Polkadot ecosystem has tools that serve the community effectively. Without such improvements, continued investment in OG Tracker risks being a poor use of resources.

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Unrelated ask: Please share Google Analytics data to the community for the OG Tracker tool since your last funding round so we can see what sort of activity this project receives daily, weekly, monthly, etc.