| Article Description: How to restrict users, and talk about the gas field of path. |
Early in the Web2.0 2006, 07, when everyone was busy with how to give users more autonomy, more powerful custom function, lest because of not free and limited the exuberant creativity.
But this is a past style.
My tall thin colleague, the president of the blog old and I complained, said the blog's custom function to too much, the user dressed in strange, what kind of column width and navigation have, make later want to do a little adjustment are tied, it is difficult to be compatible with such a complex user interface. Improve the hands and feet slightly larger, there are a number of custom style users, the blog interface is disabled, must jump up and scold.
More sad than this thing is, there are many low-end users, using custom features to dress up the blog that ghost Ah ... It really adds to the congestion. Fall in the eyes of high-end users, the entire blog brand will be compromised. Although the other people's aesthetic is that appearance, but did not give such a strong setting function, also not be toss residual. You see about.me, not only to meet the personalized needs, the worst effect is not a good place to go, is a good example of the strength of the custom.
Later blog Small K research Tumblr, I also ran to attend the fun. After listening to me, Mr. Governor asked me, what was your most impressive point? I thought about it, it's the limit. Tumblr through the content of the formatting restrictions to protect the personal home page neat and beautiful visual effects. This is the same as Jane, the first step back, to reduce the number of users to set permissions, in order to change back to a more gorgeous home layout style, but also card dead the custom interface of the lower bounds of beauty.
The most classic case of retreat is Twitter. Want to write more than 140 words? One side cool off. Would you like to revise your speech? One side cool off. Even want to insert a video directly into the feed stream? One side cool off. Finally, Twitter is one of the greatest 10 Internet products on the planet.
Another upstart path is even more extreme than Twitter in terms of restricting users. It is only allowed to add 50 friends, on the grounds that it is against promiscuity. 50 friends have reached the limit of good faith communication. Is it sick? This guy has received extraordinary attention and applause, appearing frequently on various app lists in the 2010.
It is worth mentioning that there are Instagram. I don't know if it's enough or not, so far, it doesn't have a decent personal page on the web side. What results will it bring? Users are forced to focus their attention on the app side, especially the app's feed stream, and the development team is focused on it-after all, that's the focus. Why distract from the start of the race against the clock?
There are many advantages to doing subtraction.
In the 21st century's 10 's (how so clumsy), product design reflects several big trends. First, the focus, the application focus, the target crowd, the second is simple, to do more subtraction, highlighting a simpler and more distinct themes; third, creativity, demanding the unique concept of the subject. All three are ready, and you keep up with the times and wear three watches. One way to do this is to "limit the user" to "shrink focus" and "filter the crowd" to achieve a maverick "special experience."
It is worth constantly reminding yourself.
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Add a few more points to path.
In the knowledge of the path to see the discussion, some views I do not agree with, but first I am not a path user, there is no experience of observation, lack of self-confidence, and the second is not like a war of words. So it's good to write my understanding here.
The selling point of path is real relationships, especially the strong relationships in real society. No one can do this, Facebook can not do it, the Internet is not promiscuous to blame. So the path out of a big kill device-only 50 friends. By limiting the number, forcing users to select their own friends carefully.
In doing so, it not only creates an additional concept of publicity, but also attracts the seed users and brings a unique experience to use. A user who is serious about using path, all he sees is a life with a close friend (strong relationship), with a unique aggregation of content. Product temperament depends on the dominant content, like Facebook copy Twitter, but not like "all is broken read" Twitter, and Sina Weibo even if the direct support of pictures and check-in, also learn not like "all pictures" "All is signed" Instagram and Foursquare. In other words, the impurities in the dominant content will pollute the product temperament, and then interfere with the brand cognition and user behavior.
Therefore, the pure path of "all intimate friend life with the clap", the product gas field and Instagram, or any other product formed a great difference (similar to "all real-name users seriously discuss" with Baidu know the difference). This difference in positioning and interaction design also makes it easier for path users to annotate photos and enhance their "photo journaling social" brand awareness.
In the knowledge, there are many people who are dismissive of the "WHO/Where/what" in the path-guided text annotation. I do not object to the idea itself, the way of guidance is really poor, but Foursquare "To-do/undo" and where to go? It is not worth denying the value of the whole product for this small flaw. This is the core value of path, "with ingenious restrictions and straightforward interaction, to achieve the pure experience of intimate friends sharing photo diaries."
As to how much this value, I did not play, I can not say. But I also noticed that some of the people who played and left Instagram, who were less interested in photography, had a corresponding need. Perhaps a product that is "all intimate friends live with" and with sufficient textual annotation information (Instagram can not do this) can let them immersed in it? After all, it is possible to achieve this product, the market is only a path.
The recent path to reject Google's 100 million-dollar takeover feat may prove that the path is still on the side, not just the Silicon Valley's own self-talk narcissism.
