I am currently working on the IA for a Facebook application. It will be launching at the beginning of March.
It is definitely a challenge to make it spread virally between users and whilst not invading their privacy or being perceived as spam. The FB platform itself has many default interactions/flows to share applications with users, post to profiles and share virally - I would recommend studying these and how other applications do it. You might want to consider things like: * Which of the out of the box viral FB functionality you want to include vs. override? * Which user actions require installation of the application vs. no install? * What content access will you provide pre-registration/login? * What makes your Facebook application compelling enough for users to install and share? * How can third party sign-ins and registration be successfully integrated with the application and not become a road block. Consider auto-login down the road. * How does your application fit within the right container of facebook vs. the left rail? Can one size fit all or do you need 2 different versions? * Consider taking advantage of the default FB commenting and ratings system. * Understanding how technological limitations of FB may limit what you design such as not being able to display an iframe inside the profile page. Facebook has it's own mark-up language called FBML. Consider how the technology constraints of the platform will impact what you do. Work closely with developers at all stages in order to ensure what you are designing can be implemented. Our application is an RIA so it has it's own rich feature set and functionality associated with it but where possible takes advantage of the inbuilt FB functionality since it is not necessary to re-invent the wheel and it is often better to go with interactions users are familiar with. More general things to consider include: * How to market your application and monetization? * Making it simple and easy to use - not over complicating it. * As with all interaction design - understand your user base and consider focus groups and user testing with FB users. * Consider why FB applications such as Picnik are so successful - they offer value-add to the existing FB suite of tools. I hope this helps. Dawa Riley http://www.madfairy.com On Feb 11, 2008 6:06 PM, Jeffrey D. Gimzek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Feb 11, 2008, at 1:17 PM, Anthony Hempell wrote: > > > I'm doing IA and interaction design for a facebook application. > > > > http://developers.facebook.com/ is very developer-focused; I'm > > wondering if anyone knows of resources that are more about designing > > the user experience than the technical development angle? > > > > A good sample flow / map of some existing apps would be a wonderful > > start... I see that Christina et al did bring this up a while ago > > (http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=19829 > > ) but wondering if there has been any progress in this area... > > > Facebook apps are the least appealing interactions I have experienced. > > They are mostly no more than spam-generators, so be careful to > explain the purpose of your App up front. > > I want to design an App called: > > "How annoying the endless emails from this App? Rate It Now!" > > > > > - - > > Jeffrey D. Gimzek | Senior User Experience Designer > > http://www.glassdoor.com > > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
