Social networking website design

Author: Paul Adams Translator: finger

It took 15 years for phone and phone to reach 100 million users, but it took Facebook a mere 9 months. More and more people are connected by online social networks that seem to be growing exponentially. But the reality is that social networks rarely increase the number of our contacts. Most of the contacts on social networks we've seen before. We've contacted these people online, and social networks simply visualize the connection. For example, we often talk to old friends at school and communicate the emotions through the wall posts. But once we establish the connection, we communicate very little, and for a long time we forget about the existence of this connection. In fact, Facebook users never touch 50% of contacts. When we look at how people interact on social networks, we find that most of the interaction occurs between us and a small part of the contact's population.

The average number of friends on Facebook is 130, many users have more friends. Despite hundreds of friends, most people who play facebook only have 4 to 7 people interacting with each other. For 90% of Facebook users, 20% of friends account for 70% of their total human interaction. We also found this on the phone. There are hundreds of numbers in our phone contacts, but 80% of calls are for the same 4 people. We know that many people use Skype, but 80% of Skype calls are for 2 people. Even when people play online computer games, they often play with people they know offline before.

We also engage in a variety of interactions with less familiar people. We look for new jobs, not through our friends, but through friends; when we lose friends, our friends and friends lose weight; we browse eBay and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on people who we do not know Buy something, and probably will never deal with them again.

We have different relationships with people in our life, but the Internet does not support that very well.

On Facebook (left), all my "friends" are handled the same way. I will see a long, alphabetically sorted list. Some of them are my most trusted close friends, and some of them I have seen no more than five times. But they are all grouped in a big group of "friends." There are many "friends" on Facebook that I do not want to call "friends." I may call them acquaintances or colleagues, and even family members, but they are not part of my closest friend.

In my phone (right), all contacts are treated the same way. I will see a long, alphabetically sorted list. My best friend has the same display pixel size as another person who has not talked to me for 5 years. Maybe I can find the most commonly connected people through the "Favorite Contacts" tab, but the people in that list are also sorted by letter, just like those I never know. On LinkedIn (right) all my contacts are treated the same way. While some of them worked with me for several years everyday, others I saw only in one meeting.

Our social internet tools must begin to understand the connection strength, that is, we have strong connections with some people, while others are not. Based on this knowledge, social tools need to be adjusted.

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Three types of relationships are connected

• Strong connection: the person we are deeply concerned about

• Weak connections: We are loosely connected people, friends like friends

• Temporary connection: People we do not know but interact with on a temporary basis

Let's take a look at each type of connection and how to design for them.

Most people have less than 10 strong connections

For many years, people have been talking about social networks consisting of strong and weak connections. Think of people in your life, thinking of your closest friends or the closest person in your family, these are all examples of strong connections. Strong connection is your most concern. People often refer to strong connections as people in their "circle of trust." Strong connections tend to have the most influence on people's decisions.

Most people have very few strong connections, usually less than ten. A study of 3,000 Americans randomly selected showed that Americans have on average only 4 intimate social contacts (4 strong connections). Most Americans have 2-6 strong connections. People's strong connection comes from a variety of places. About half of the connections are friends and the other half include spouses, companions, parents, siblings, children, collaborators, club followers, neighbors, and career consultants. In 2002 and 2007, a study of 1,178 adults found that on average, 10 friends each met or talked at least on a weekly basis9. Therefore, when designing for strong connections, we are designing for smaller groups.

Some people think the situation is changing because the internet is getting us closer to more people10, but research shows the opposite. Most of the use of social networking occurs between strong connections. As mentioned earlier, people typically interact with 4-6 people on Facebook, with 4 on the phone and 2 on Skype. When people play online computer games with other people, they often play with people they know and often play with people who are within a few miles of their home. Technology is used to communicate between strong connections, this model is not new. When the phone was invented, it was more used to expand and strengthen the strong connection rather than weaken them. A study of the 1970s showed that most of the calls were made to people 11 less than five miles from the caller's home.

Design for strong connection:

• Consider their existing communication methods, such as calling, texting, emailing, etc. You must support the interactive way in which the strong connection has been used, and do not try to replace it with our messaging system.

• Displaying the 10 closest people more often may be more valuable than just displaying a small amount of information from many people.

• Avoid using generic terms like "friends," which can lead to overly large groups and reduce their relevancy.

• Suggest users contact others, but tell him the consequences of adding a new connection.

People stay in sync with the 150 weakly connected messages

Let's move our focus away from your strongest connection and think about your friends' friends. These people are not familiar with you, this is an example of a weak connection. Weak connections are people you know but do not pay attention to, and these people have loose connections with you. Weak connections are those you encounter in elevators that do not feel unnatural but do not have a strong sense of intimacy.

In the 1970s, sociologist Marc Granovetter published a seminal paper on weak connection forces. He concludes that a relatively strong connection to a weak connection is often a better source of information. Because of our strong connection is a small circle, weak connection can be used as a more powerful source of information and advice. Research shows that most people in real life can only keep up with 150 weakly connected messages. This model has been correct for the past few thousand years. Neolithic villages tend to split into two once they reach 150 inhabitants; the Roman army is divided into 150 teams for everyone to know each other 12. This is still true today - both online and offline. We are linked by more than 150 weak connections, but we are not in contact with them. We may have hundreds of contacts on Facebook, but let's talk about the lives of any one person.

In social networks, weak connections are sometimes useful. For example, a contact from LinkedIn above can help you find a new job, and a friend from a friend can give you advice in a specific area. But sometimes, weak connections can lead to embarrassing social situations. For example, reluctant Facebook invitations from people you are not very familiar with.

When designing for weak connections:

• Think about the balance between communication and trust. Weak connections may know more about what we are interested in, but we may not trust them enough. It is important in such situations to showcase our other common connections or to expose their sources of knowledge as this helps us to enhance mutual trust.

• Make it easy for people to expose their network to people they trust. This will show how weak connections are made without infringing user privacy.

• Allow proper communication between weak connections. A better approach might be to browse or highlight common strong links.

The Internet is increasing our interaction with ad hoc connections

When we think about online relationships, it's not enough to have just strong connections and weak connections. We need a new connection classification - temporary connection.

Temporary connections have always existed, but the internet is bringing it to the foreground. Think of those you've only met once. You do not really know who they are. A store clerk, a call center clerk, and a seller you meet on eBay are all examples of temporary connections. Temporary connections are more common online than offline. They are people who have not previously been with you, but have interacted temporarily for some reason. Once the mission is over, it is unlikely that the interim connection will continue to interact. Except for the words they typed, you do not know them, no matter how their online profiles are written. As online users generate more content, ad hoc connectivity is becoming more important.

Here are 4 common types of temporary connections:

• People sometimes interact with ad hoc connections for information. People who need information look for people who know the answer. Once the information needs are met, the interaction between these connections often ends. You may be asking people in the street for directions or finding information on Yahoo. This type of temporary connection is becoming more and more important to future Internet searches. People are answering specific questions by looking for others rather than other businesses.

• Temporary connections also exist where people need to temporarily interact to accomplish a task. Once the mission is complete, the interaction is terminated. For example, interact with a sales clerk at a store or let a plumber into your home to fix the leaky piping. Many of these tasks are now happening online. For example, interact with a call center account representative to arrange leads or buy something from a temporary connection on eBay.

• Temporary connections can be formed around a common interest that is taking place, such as a sports team or hobby. Interactions often occur on community sites, such as forums for a sports team. The true identity of these connections may remain unknown. People who post on the site often come to know and understand each other's behavior. Although they may never meet, the relationship between them may gradually change from temporary to weak. Temporary connections interact online and meet online, examples of which are gradually increasing.

• People often form temporary connections with people who share the same physical space as themselves. These connections can be as simple as 1 minute on the street or as complicated as talking on and off intermittently for three days at a festival. Although not at the same time, technology now allows us to communicate with our temporary connections that share the same physical space as us. We can use our own phone to see who had been to the restaurant we remembered, what they ordered, and if they thought it was good.

Because we do not have a history of connecting with temporary connections (unlike strong and weak connections), demonstrating authenticity and credibility is the key to successful interaction. We need to know that eBay sellers are trustworthy. We need to know that the drug advice we're reading comes from a real doctor rather than a doctor. We need to know that restaurant reviews come from people who know the food, Amazon's comments are not written by a company employee.

In Yahoo Q & A, people can build their credibility in many ways. On the left, "Messykat" is gaining credibility by trying to provide the most accurate answers. She may be helpful in 20% of cases, but we still do not know enough about her qualifications as an expert in three special areas (cats, dogs, weddings). On the right, "RuthAnn" is building her credibility by declaring her "40 years of dog training experience." This merely adds a superficial proof of qualification, but we are not sure if it is real.

In eBay (left), "jmjenkins" is building credibility through positive feedback on the temporary connections he had dealt with in the past. Some of them also left a similar comment in his information that "the goods meet the description and are safe and in good condition, thanks! A ++".

On the Amazon (right), W.Todd Dominey is building credibility by providing helpful comments (665 out of 711). He also builds trust by using his real name and sharing his or her own place. However, just as "RuthAnn" is on the Yahoo Q & A, we do not know how much W.Todd Dominey knows about these comments. We can not confirm his qualifications.

Most motives that help most of their temporary connections are not money. You can not create a great temporary connection community with monetary rewards. Yelp tried to do this, giving each commenter a dollar bonus, and later they tried to let people comment on old posts or make new ones for $ 15 for an hour. Yelp eventually got a lot of low-quality comments 13 14, along with a lot of bad pressure. Part of the real motivation for temporary connections includes being accredited as an expert, altruism, and feeling that they belong to a community. All of these behaviors need to be understood and considered in our social web design.

It is good for business to support temporary connections. One study shows that "positive reviews of a handset product often increase one to two months earlier than the handset's market share." Another seven-month study showed that when the online promotion activity (an online chatter's assessment is likely to lead to a recommendation) increases, the sales also increase in the following month; when the activity decreases, sales Also reduced by 16.

• Excellent systems should give priority to establishing credibility. Allow people to give each other feedback.

• Encourage people to expose content that increases their authenticity. This includes real names, real photos instead of avatars, or things that justify their qualifications.

• Good systems should give priority to building trust between people. This may include highlighting common contacts, common groups, or common interests.

• Do not use money to stimulate people, to stimulate them to establish their own credibility.

in conclusion

Social web design will become one of the key skills for every interactive designer. In order to do it well, we will need to understand some basic human relationships. If your users are focused on strong connections, you need to do a different design than the one that focuses on the temporary connections. Understanding the differences between strong, weak, and temporary connections will help us build a better online social experience.

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