Designing Social Interfaceschristian crumlish & erin malone
5 practices5 principles
5 anti-patterns
A little about us: erin malone
@emalone
A little about us: christian crumlish
@mediajunkie
People are unpredictable
new social media : always awkward
Designing social requires different thinking
Organicvs Static
Emotional vs Data
Relationships vs Transactions
Continuumvs One Grand Gesture
~ Deb Shultz, Altimeter Group photo © erin malone
5 Principles
Pave the cowpaths
Dogster started as a photosharing service. Shifted focus to pets once company saw people were
primarily uploading pics and talking about their dogs.
Talk like a person
Do you want to talk to your customers like this?
Or like this?
How to talk like a person
Conversational VoiceSelf-Deprecating Error MessagesAsk QuestionsYour vs. MyNo Joking Around
Be open. Play well with others
Embrace open standardsShare data outside of the bounds of your applicationAccept external data within the sphere of your applicationSupport two-way interoperability
Learn from games
Learn from games
What are Game Mechanics?
The systems and features that make games fun, compelling and addictive.
~Amy Jo Kim
How to learn from games
Game MechanicsCollectinggives bragging rights, encourages completion
Pointsgame points by systems, social points by others, drives loyalty, drives behavior unlock new powers or access
Feedbacksocial feedback drives engagementaccelerates mastery and adds fun
Exchangesstructured social interactionsexplicit or implicit
Customizationcharacter or interface
Respect the ethical dimension
Respect the ethical dimension
Some of the forces that must be balanced, to apply many of these patterns, involve ethical dilemmas
5 Practicesor a brief tour of 96 patterns
The Ecosystem
The Ecosystem
Give people a way to be identified
Give people a way to be identified
And to identify themselves
Self
Attribution and Avatars
Identity doesn’t alway have to manifest itself in a complicated or robust pro!le.
User Cards
Identity doesn’t alway have to manifest itself in a complicated or robust pro!le.
Make sure there is a “there” there. What’s your social object?
The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the reason two people are talking to each other, as opposed to talking to somebody else.
Social Networks form around Social Objects, not the other way around.
~ Hugh MacLeod GapingVoid.com
Give people something to do
It’s a continuum
It’s a continuum
Activities involving objects
It’s a continuum
CollectingSharing
Broadcasting & PublishingFeedback
CommunicatingCollaborationSocial Media
OneOne to oneOne to many
One to one, One to an objectOne to one, One to many, Many to manyMany to manyEcosystem
Activities involving objects
Books: ratings, reviews, search
Activities involving objects
Books: ratings, reviews, search
Public conversation
Activities involving objects
Activities involving objects
Photos: collecting, sharing, comments, favoriting, groups, broadcasting
Activities involving objects
Collecting, Ratings, Reviews
Activities involving objects
Collecting, Ratings, Reviews
Tagging
Sharing
Labels, ratings, reviews, levels
Enable a bridge to real life
Bridging Real Life
Taking it offline
Geo-Mobile
Face-to-face meeting
And then back online
After the PartyFace-to-face meeting
Let the community elevate people & content they value
Let the community elevate people & content they value
Gently moderate
Connections & Community
Find People
Enabling people to make connections
Adding Friends
Fans & Fame
Circles of Connections
Enter text here
Norms
Model Citizen
Report Abuse
5 Anti-Patterns
Cargo Cult
Cargo Cult
Cargo Cult
Cargo Cult
Don’t break email
Don’t break email
Facebook breaks email since you can’t reply to messages that arrive in the inbox.Basecamp allows people to reply as they are accustomed to and the message goes back into the stream on the site.
The Password Anti-Pattern
The Password Anti-Pattern
The Password Anti-Pattern
iLike
Plaxo
The Password Anti-Pattern
yelp
The Ex-boyfriend bug
Potemkin Village
Instead of building a Potemkin Village, the architects of the relaunched dead.net site started with a judicious few groups and then let the community spawn the rest.
The Ecosystem - it’s balance with tradeoffs
ThanksErin@[email protected]
Christian@[email protected] buy the book
http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com
How toPlay the Game
Game Goals
• Build a social digital product around an object for a speci!c audience delivered in a speci!c way
• Deliver a well rounded product (with features across Identity, Activities and Relationships)
• Build products in a de!ned time frame
• Work as a team to collaborate and build the best products
• Play against another team
Game Play