I'm behind on posting from yesterday's SXSW sessions, so there will be a series of speed posts today. Here's the first: what are the smart ways being used now to design interactions? Andreas Weigend and Ming Yeow Ng explored the science of designing interaction at SXSW 2008:
A number of sites were mentioned as good examples of metrics-based interaction design:
- Get Satisfaction. Customers come to this community site in order to discuss their customer service experience. Because customers gather, the companies pay attention; and because the companies are paying attention here, customers continue to flock to the site. (Disclosure note: I am currently working with Get Satisfaction.)
- Zombies. By playing the game at all, you must infect others with play. Basic, pure virality.
- HotorNot. This highly addictive site taps into both a competitive gene, and the need for attention. What has someone said about me today?
- Twitter. This completely opt-in system allows users to share updates with their friends with as much or as little frequency as they wish, with no worries that they will be considered spam. And once someone wants to hear your updates, your updates serve as a patient, consistent invitation to use the service.
And here's a few of my top takeaways:
- Most folks thinking about reputation acknowledge its complexity. eBay's reputation system works because it's very simple and transparent, and because it is a reputation for one thing only - behavior within auction transactions. Weigend's riff was that reputation is not a one-dimensional object, and that it helps to collect data from the past. Interesting note, but the issue is still
- There are a number of properties that lead to addiction...Weigend commented that your online world changes whether you are there or not, and so it draws you back. (e.g., did anyone leave me a gift? did anyone friend me?)
- Ng portrayed discovery as the new cocaine. (Hopefully, it won't kill me.) People comment and participate because they want to be discovered.
- The complexity of identity is finally being acknowledged, with the trading of identities no longer forced into a 1:1 exchange, but supportive of 1:many scenarios.
