Post on 10-May-2015
description
A Tale of Two SitesAn Explora7ve Study of the Design and Evalua7on of Social Network Sites
Sameer Ahuja
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OverviewInstant Background
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Building soCware that is deployed to a community is different from building soCware that is deployed to
individual users
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[...] the success and growth of social so5ware stems from the con7nuous tango between technological advancement and incremental user par3cipa3on, and the net product is neither cleanly social nor technological in nature.
‐ boyd
technological advancementincremental user par3cipa3on
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technological advancementincremental user par3cipa3on
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(features)
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((features) + sociological effects)
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So when we design, we need to think about the sociological effects we are hoping to achieve.
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And when we evaluate, we need to see if we are achieving those effects.
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In this thesis we specifically look at the problem of forma&ve evalua7on of social network sites.
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Forma7ve?
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When the cook tastes the soup, thats forma7ve; when the guests taste the soup, thats summa7ve.
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But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
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To find fundamental issues and glaring omissions in the support of social ac7ons on the social network site
But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
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To find fundamental issues and glaring omissions in the support of social ac7ons on the social network site
To reduce the risks involved in evalua7ng only when the soCware is in the wild
But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
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A few defini7ons
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Social Network Sites
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(1) construct a public or semi‐public profile within a bounded system
(2) ar7culate a list of other users with whom they share a connec7on
(3) view and traverse their list of connec7ons and those made by others within a system
‐boyd, Ellison
We define social network sites as web‐based services that allow individuals to
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Social Networking Sites
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Social Affordance
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Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or virtual, which invite and facilitate social interac7on among the par7cipants in that space
‐ Howarth, Pyla, Yost, and Haciahmetoglu
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Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or virtual, which invite and facilitate social interac7on among the par7cipants in that space
‐ Howarth, Pyla, Yost, and Haciahmetoglu
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Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or virtual, which invite and facilitate social ac7ons among the par7cipants in that space
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Social Ac7ons
We define social ac7ons in the context of social network sites as ac7ons that affect the social capital of the community using the site
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Social Capital
We use James Coleman’s defini7on, which suggests that social capital is anything that facilitates individual or collec7ve ac7on, generated by networks of rela7onships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms.
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Colloki /Slurp! CATspaceh[p://slurp.cs.vt.edu h[p://apps.facebook.com/catspace
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Colloki
• Centered around local delibera7on
• Aggrega7on and dissemina7on of content from and to distributed sources
• Uses a set of social and organiza7onal features to promote engagement
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CATspace
• Computer Science Assignment Repository
• Bring instructors from different ins7tu7ons into a common plaborm (Facebook)
• Leverage already exis7ng social connec7ons on Facebook
• Use social features to promote collabora7on and itera7on over assignments
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Social Ac7ons
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Social Browsing
“finding new people”
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Social Search
“finding more about people you know”
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Interac7on
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Sharing content
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Collabora7on
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Features
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TaggingSocial Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High High Good
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Ac7vity StreamsSocial Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High
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User ProfilesSocial Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High
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CommentsSocial Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Good Good High Good
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Ra7ngs / VotesSocial Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Good
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Design Expecta7ons
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Tagging High High High Good
Ac7vity Streams
High High
Profiles High High
Comments Good Good High Good
Ra7ng/Votes Good
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Study10 Par7cipants
Graduate Students at Virginia Tech
Colloki: 5 par7cipantsGraduate Students in Departments
other than Computer Science at Virginia Tech
CATspace: 5 par7cipantsGraduate Students in Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech
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Protocol
• Pre‐Evalua7on Survey on usage of SNS, demographics
• 5‐Minute Video demo of the soCware
• Set of tasks to perform on the soCware
• Post‐Evalua7on Ques7onnaire
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Simulated Community
• Derived from posts and ac7vity of alpha‐stage users, represented ‘expected’ use.
• First fold rule
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Results
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Overall Usability
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Overall Usability
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Overall Usability
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Overall Usability
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Overall Usability
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Overall Usability
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“The Tagging thing was odd. I had to click on a tag which took me to a page that had all posts with the tag. Then from there I had to click on one of the posts, then go to its author and see if he or she had that tag in the tag cloud. That’s cumbersome.”
‐ Colloki Par7cipant
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“I think this profile looks a liFle empty. You can have a list of users with similar stuff here, kindof like facebook friend list. Actually, you could show the person's facebook friends (who are on CATspace) right here.”
‐ CATspace Par7cipant
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Tagging
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Tagging
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Ac7vity Streams
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Which one of the five topics listed on the homepage do you think has been the most ac7ve recently amongst the slurp community?
Colloki
Which is the latest assignment that he (Steve Edwards) has published?
CATspace
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In almost all cases in CATspace (And all cases in Colloki), par7cipants u7lized other user interface
elements to find their answers.
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User Profiles
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User Profiles
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User Profiles
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User Profiles
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“[...] but where can I leave him a message? Do I have to go to the Facebook profile for that? How do I go to the Facebook profile from here?”
‐ CATspace Par7cipant
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Comments
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
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Ra7ngs/Votes
?
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Discussion
• Collabora7on ac7on didn’t have suppor7ng tasks
• Could have broadened the number of ac7ons, and custom‐chosen ac7ons for features
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Future Work
• Valida7ng / Evalua7ng user responses to actual usage
• Broader taxonomy of ac7ons
• Figuring out how to do this without overloading the par7cipants with ques7ons
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Thank You!Q & A
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