Lessons from Social Software: From Facebook to a Face to Face Design Guild

Xianhang Zhang - BayCHI

Grange Bridge, Cumbria1675

A Tale of Two Bridges

Bloukrans Bridge, South Africa1984

Grange Bridge, Cumbria1675

Pre-scientific

Grange Bridge, Cumbria1675

• Built through trial & error

• Frequent failure

• Lack of generalizable learning

• Rules of thumb knowledge

• Knowledge only gained via experience

Scientific

Bloukrans Bridge, South Africa1984

• Built using theory & methodology

• Predictable results

• Accumulation of learning

• Abstracted knowledge

• Taught via instruction

My Background

• BSc Computer Science (University of New South Wales)

• • HCI work with Tabletop Computing (University of Sydney)

Interaction Design

• User Centered Design

• Usability Testing

• Personas & Use Cases

• Mental Models

• Fitts’ Law & GOMS

• etc...

My Background

• BSc Computer Science (University of New South Wales)

• • HCI work with Tabletop Computing (University of Sydney)

• PhD Candidate (University of Washington)...

Flame wars are not surprising; they are one of the most reliable features of mailing list

practice. If you assume a piece of software is for what it does, rather than what its

designer's goals were, then mailing list software is a tool for creating and sustaining

heated argument...

You couldn't go through the code of Mailman and find the comment that reads "The next subroutine ensures that misunderstandings between users will be amplified, leading to name-calling and vitriol." Yet the software will frequently produce just that outcome...

In thirty years, the principal engineering work on mailing lists has been on the

administrative experience. Mailman now offers administrator nearly a hundred

configurable options, many with multiple choices. However, the social experience of a

mailing list over those three decades has hardly changed at all...

Is it considered rude to "ignore" a friend request?

Is it considered rude to un-friend a facebook friend? What if its someone you never actually speak to? And wish you had never friended? But you don't want to seem like an asshole? Will everyone assume that there was some "issue" or fight between us?

What about work related "friends," like a boss or someone you want to maintain good relations with but don't want seeing your party pictures?

Is the point of facebook to acquire the most friends? Is there a secret prize for accomplishing this?

What is Social Experience Design?

• Designing the Social Interactions around a product/service

• A distinct & separate field from Interaction Design

• Designing for nuance, politeness, ambiguity, identity & privacy

• Does not require an interactive technology

• An example...

Group Discussion Protocol

• Standard: First-in-First-out

Group Discussion Protocol

• Better: Raised Finger & Raised Hand

My Background

• • HCI work with Tabletop Computing (University of Sydney)

• PhD Candidate (University of Washington)

• Bumblebee Labs (Founder)

• Peel (Social Experience Designer)

• Product Design Guild (Founder)

Social Experience Design

• Built through trial & error

• Frequent failure

• Lack of generalizable learning

• Rules of thumb knowledge

• Knowledge only gained via experience

Social Experience Design

Social Experience Design Primer

1. Sociotechnical Systems

2. Social Affordances

3. Plazas & Warrens

• Rapid increase in demand for designers

• Design education isn’t reflecting skills SV employers want

• Technology teams now 3 - 5 engineers & 1 designer

• Mentorship is a losing economic proposition

I think this is where guilds come in. Today, we often equate guilds with unions and organizing to establish and protect workers' rights.

But, one of the original functions of guilds was to establish a path of mastery that was orthogonal to the workplace, since it was unlikely that you had a chance to work with other craftsmen on a daily basis.

Mission: To enable the creation of more & better designers by providing a path of mastery that is orthogonal to the workplace

Pilot #1

• 30 designers

• Bringing real work in order to engage in collaborative design

• Noon - 6pm

• Largely free-form collaboration

Rules

• You need to bring work: This is a place for work to be done. There is no room for tourists

• Give before you receive: We want this to be a community for contribution, not a resource for exploitation

• Be articulate about what you can offer: We are looking for people who can contribute to the education of fellow designers

Rules (continued)• Seek permission from all of your stakeholders

before sharing: Don't sneak work into the guild under your client's or boss' nose

• We operate under the FriendDA: Seek explicit permission before sharing anything you saw outside of the guild

• Disclose any possible conflicts of interest before collaborating: It's up to the requester to decide whether to proceed

• Any guild work you do belongs to the requester: The requester is free to use it however they like without reseeking your consent

Designing a Design Guild

Sociotechnical Systems

Social & Technical Systems

CommunityTechnology

Social & Technical Systems

PolicyCode

Constraints

Sociotechnical Systems

Constraints

Constraints

Sociotechnical Systems are successful when the right constraints are in place, regardless of where

they are implemented

• Static

• Directly Controllable

• Replicable

• Rigid

• Dynamic

• Indirectly Controlled

• Contextual

• Flexible

Implications

• Static analysis is impossible

• All analysis must be done in the context of use

• To derive generalizable findings, study constraints rather than artifacts

• Successful sociotechnical systems last by maintaining constraints in the face of changing social environments

• Start with the social system first

• Use technology to augment

• Three projects:

• Situational Awareness

• Human Expertise Routing Network

• Measuring Contribution

• Use technology to help deal with scale

Social Affordances

Affordances

Social Affordances

• Audience

• Context

• Benefit

• Cost

4 Factors of Social Affordance

• Audience

• Context

• Benefit

• Cost

4 Factors of Social Affordance

• Any Audience

• No Context

• Unclear Benefit

• Only Cost is Effort

The Problem

• Any Audience

• No Context

• Unclear Benefit

• Only Cost is Effort

The Problem

Goal: A place for meaningful, substantive & productive interaction

Audience:

• Pre-screened

• Committee of peers

• Base level of design talent

Context:

• Basic level of design literacy expected

• Work framed the conversation

• Helpfulness as a norm

Benefit:

• Connect with other designers

• Exposure to new skills/techniques/knowledge

• Produce better design

Costs:

• Time

• Unwanted Social Obligation

• Possibility of breach of confidentiality

• Reputational Risk

These affordances will change over time, the challenge is to stay true to the goal

Plazas vs Warrens

Plazas & Warrens

• All Social Systems can be decomposed into:

• Plaza:

• Warren:

Plazas

• Shared, contiguous space

• Every person interacts with every other person

• Chatrooms/Comment threads/Meetings

• Plazas scale by getting bigger

• Easy to start, hard to scale

Warrens

• Fragmented, personalized spaces

• Can only interact with immediate surrounds

• Facebook/IM/Cities

• Warrens scale by adding more warrens

• Hard to start, easy to scale

Plazas & Warrens

• Every Social System is a combination of Plazas & Warrens

Warrens

PlazaPlaza

• Currently, mainly a plaza

• How do we scale?

• How do we avoid bad elements?

• Journeyman/Apprentice/Master?

• Geographical/Time Segregation?

Plazas & Warrens

• The architecture of your product will determine how people communicate

• Designing the correct Social Experience involves making sure this architecture is correct

• The necessity of Plazas vs Warrens will change as your community changes

Three Methodologies

Sociotechnical Systems, Social Affordances & Plazas/Warrens

• Apply generally to all social systems

• Abstracted knowledge

• Allow for generalizable learning

• The first step in a scientific discipline...

Conclusions

1. Social Experience Design is a distinct problem space

2. We are still in a Pre-Scientific era for Social Experience Design

3. The Product Design Guild is Awesome!

(come talk to me after about how you can help)

Or sign up at: http://www.productdesignguild.com

Questions?