Tim, Sounds like quite the project. I'm working on a class project that is challenging me in a similar way. Though it isn't a social networking site, I'm working on a site in which I want to add features that make the site more interactive (interaction between the reader and the site, and interaction between the readers... sans threads). I want this to be a digital history site unlike the standard set of dull static sites that are regularly encountered on the Web. Incidentally, I'm an historian (M.A.) who has gone down the technical communication (M.S. in progress) path... and that is leading to a desire to jump over to the Informatics/HCI path (PhD). That said, I'm really interested in getting an idea of how you plan to make the features that you mention a reality. Without taking up too much of your time, can you expand on some of the details?
Robert Moore Patrick Grizzard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Timothy, Have you read Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody"? He has loads of both theoretically interesting and practically useful insights about social tools, but the last chapter in particular talks about the success of social tools as a function of three criteria: the Promise, the Tool and the Bargain. The Promise is "the why", it creates the basic desire to participate. Sometimes the implicit promise (the pleasure of like-minded peoples' company) actually matters more than any explicit one (discussing interaction design) in motivating people to participate. The Tool is "the how", it defines the types of interactions that the group will rely on. To this extent, a good social tool is like a good woodworking tool, in that it "must be designed to fit the job being done, and it must help people do something they actually want to do." That latter part is critical - the ranks of ditch diggers won't swell overnight simply by designing a better shovel. Also, tools vary in the types of groups they are expected to support. Small groups are effective at creating and sustaining agreement and shared awareness, whereas larger, distributed groups can often generate better answers by pooling their knowledge or intuition without having to come to agreement (wisdom of crowds). By understanding the two basic constraints of group action number of people and duration of interaction any given tool can be analyzed for goodness of fit. Finally, the Bargain defines the "rules of the road" and sets participants' expectations about what is expected of them and what they can expect from others. The Bargain is the most complex aspect of a functioning group, in part because it is the least explicit aspect and in part because it is the one that the users have the biggest hand in creating, which means it cant be completely determined in advance. So, the answers to your questions are in large part dependent upon these criteria. Is it a small, densely linked group or a larger, distributed community? How strong will the social bonds be among participants and will they persist over time, or will people come together intermittently for brief periods? Are you trying to facilitate sharing (imposes lowest cost to participate), collaboration (harder because it involves participants changing behavior to synchronize with one another) or collective action (requires a group of people to commit themselves to undertaking a particular effort together, and to do so in a way that makes the decision of the group binding on the individual members)? If you have time, I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of "Here Comes Everybody" - the last chapter focusses on these ideas and also talks about tactical approaches to designing successful social tools (Make joining easy, create personal value for individual users - a la del.icio.us, etc.), some of which would seem to be no- brainers, but then you look at a lot of what's out there and... Anyway, good luck, keep us appraised of your progress. Patrick On May 9, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Timothy Makoid wrote: > "Hey everyone, > > I am a student majoring in Information Systems with a > concentration in HCI/ID/UX/HF. I'm working on my final project and > we are designing a small scale social networking site. Were trying > to come up with a sort of gaming system that encourages the users > to interact with each other and the site. There are a couple ways > to earn points: by taking quizzes based on stories, by sending > different forms of greetings to each other, and by setting up goals > for each other and achieving them.(Thats what we have currently). > > Were having a couple issues though. First of all, we are trying to > figure out what the logic should be for distributing the points. It > is my thought that since quizzes have the benefit of being a fun > task that engages the user, they should be worth the least amount > of points. (Maybe each correct answer is worth 1) While sending > messages, and making dedications to other users should be worth more. > > The second issue is what the points should be worth. We can not > make them worth anything of physical value, as the site is supposed > to be realistic and we could not feasibly afford sending out > rewards. My thought is that points could be redeemable for site > customization. Ex: > a. New background images to choose from. > b. New css color schemes. > c. New videos or stories could be given. > We have also toyed with the idea of making the points worth virtual > stuff for some sort of virtual world. (Perhaps a virtual garden and > with the points you can buy virtual seeds and watch flowers and > plants grow over an alloted amount of time, or a virtual house and > with the points you can buy virtual furniture to populate it). > > Finally Im thinking about allowing users to give away a certain > amount of points at the end of each month (each user gets an > allotted amount of sharing points that can be given to someone > who really helped them out in some way). > > Any and all advice would be extremely helpful. > > Thanks, > Tim" > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... 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