A summary of the relationship design problems in Internet community product design

As we all know, the design of "relationship" is a very important part of Community products, when designing a relationship, you need to take into account the cost of the relationship, the direction of information and relationships, the subsequent derivative products and ancillary functions of the relationship, and the different types of communities have different levels of relationship design, if the original shelves are not built well, Will bring a lot of trouble to the later operation. In this, the previous product design to understand some of the relationship design issues summarized and collated for your reference.

1. Who has relations with whom?

In community products, or large sites that contain community products, relationships can generally be grouped into two major types:

(1), the relationship between users and users

(2) The relationship between the user and the content (including the content generated by the user and the content produced by the site itself).

Here we discuss the design of the user-user relationship first

2, the user and the relationship between the user how to design, applicable to what type of Web site

To figure out what kind of relationship is right for a Web site, the first thing to distinguish is strong links and weak links.

Strong links : Need to obtain recognition from strong links, pure attention, compassion, show off, rely on emotional communication, strong links similar to family, real life friends, classmates, etc., although you may not be in the same knowledge circle, but still can find a lot of common public topics and emotional exchanges. And this relationship is a natural inheritance (family) or environmental causes (classmates, colleagues).

Weak link: need to obtain knowledge, information, help, communication, etc. from the link, the weak link is generated in the same knowledge domain, common occupation, the same fan group, Friend's friend (based on the same field). Through these relationships, it may have an impact on our work, learning, hobbies, in the process of interaction, both sides in exchange for information, knowledge, and understanding of something.

So which websites are typical strong links and which are weak links?

SNS type website, similar to Facebook, kaixin001.com and so on real name registration and the realistic social relations are basically the strong link relations.
Watercress, Last.fm and other based on the same hobby or cultural basis of the typical weak link mode, of course, weak links may be converted to strong links.

After we figure out the strong link, we also need to know that the cost of strong and weak links and information disclosure is different.

3. What types of relationships are appropriate for different communities or websites?

We all know that Facebook's relationship is a good friend, that is, the need to agree with each other, you can add as friends, add as friends after the content for each other's personal data and personal status of the content (photos, essays, comments, journals, relationships, etc.).
And Twitter is the focus of attention, only to be active attention can become a relationship, after the relationship, the information received only for each other's 140 words content and a small number of personal introduction.

The cost of obtaining these two relationships is quite different,
Need to agree with each other and add as friends, the first choice needs to be the owner of the subjective audit, and access to a relatively large number of content,
And the pure attention nature of the acquisition cost is relatively low, of course, the resulting comprehensive information will be much less (only from a single product form).

OK, this shows:

If the acquisition of content for the comprehensive, based on the real relationship (strong link), the relationship between the two materials have a protective tendency, the need to use the relationship between friends, that is, the need for both sides of the certification.

If the acquisition of content is a single, based on virtual relationship (weak link), the relationship between the two parties do not need to be deliberately protected, need to use the concern of the relationship, that is, no certification, the lowest cost to obtain the relationship model.

(weak links are also used to mark collections in some community sites)

So what about the disclosure of information after getting a relationship?

4. After acquiring the relationship, how should the information be disclosed?

Information disclosure after the acquisition of the relationship is roughly two points,

(1), the main content of information disclosure

The content of information disclosure is mainly refers to the two sides in the acquisition of relations, based on friends and focus on what should be for users to push what content (dynamic). In fact, the difference between the top and the weak links we have seen what needs to be disclosed.

Based on the content of strong links, we are more concerned about the interaction of the relationship, that is, what the other party did, what they think, what is updated, then whether the other person to replace the avatar, whether to write a new log, whether to take new photos, etc., will become the main information push content.
and weak links in fact, we are more concerned about not each other, but the other based on the content generated by the site, that is, the other side of a thing's position, article, photos, evaluation and so on. (similar to the recommendation of watercress, I say, mtime essays, sharing, a word film review, participate in activities, etc.)

(2), the user to the information carrying capacity, how to avoid information overload.

Information overload problem often for us, especially based on the relationship of information disclosure, then to solve or try to solve information overload problem, the first thing to be clear is the user's information on the carrying capacity of the problem, different types of relationships and different users, information on the carrying capacity is different.

Generally speaking, the stronger the relationship, the stronger the bearing capacity of information, the weaker the relationship, the poorer the bearing capacity of information. From this, we can say that in strong relationship dynamics, we can more disclose lightweight action, the flow of information does not have to control too strict, of course, to pay strict attention to personal privacy issues.
In the dynamics of weak relationships, we need to pay more attention to the correlation of information and the magnitude of information generated (for example, the cost of producing content is about large, the value of possible information is higher).

(3), the application of the reminder in the relationship

Reminders are a major part of community functions and a way for users to get relationship content at a lower cost. For example: In-station letters, special event reminders, reminders for requests, reminders for replies, and system reminders all fall into this category.

In the design of reminders, we should pay more attention to the movement forward, that is, in the reminder of the disclosure of information enough users to make judgments, and the corresponding action can quickly complete the response to information, this experience will be more conducive to improving the stickiness of the site, enhance the relationship.

The above is a small summary of the relationship design between users and users in community functions of different types of communities or websites.