Interaction Design Example: Sohu's widget open platform balloon design

Once on the open platform of Sohu has made some small widgets, in fact, these widgets have been a long time ago, but in the recent visit to the site, still want to write down this paragraph. Although the story is very small, not even a product, but the process may be more or less to give some inspiration.

At that time, a lot of thinking about product design comes from observing the behavior of ordinary users, but it is not possible to verify the feeling of these users in place. Sohu's widget open platform has been built up for some time, so the amateur time to do a small widget, to test the spread of the platform, on the other hand, through the data to better improve their understanding of the user.

A fluttering balloon.

Background:

At the time of the anti-Tibetan independence, people were outraged to express their love for the country.

On MSN, everyone began to notice that the red love, more and more people spontaneously will change the signature into a loving heart, a time MSN contact person Red became a piece.

My colleagues and I have also been infected, and have followed suit.

Analysis:

Notice this interesting phenomenon and start thinking about why people do the same thing at the same time. There are some vague conclusions:

First of all, when the country is in danger, everyone's conscience will rise to a sense of national responsibility, many people take to the streets to start a parade, to express their love for the country and the separatists angry.

But after all, many ordinary people are not angry enough, then it is difficult to express the mind. Often see news reports, "Support for the Motherland" voice, can only meditation in mind.

The signature on the chat software is the best way to express this voice, so many people begin to change their signatures "against Tibetan independence!" ”。 But self-expression is not as imposing as a parade in the streets.

At this moment, the heart, a simple symbol, along with the "Let the world's name, all floating on the hearts of" this exciting slogan, once hit the impulse of the mind.

Can the ordinary people on the MSN behavior, move to the blog up?

Through the analysis of the phenomenon of MSN, you can grasp several key points:

1. A considerable majority of ordinary people need to express their feelings of love for their motherland.

2. Chat software is the daily face of people, it is easy to promote the spread, expand group behavior.

3. The symbol of red hearts is strongly representative and more in line with the peaceful way of expression of ordinary people. (compared with angry youth)

Take a look at the characteristics of the blog:

1. Blog and chat software is different, users of the decorative requirements of the blog is very high, and access is not as frequent as chat software. (derived from the historical widget's added data)

2.widget open platform, with the ability to allow users to add content, while nurturing a part of the active users like to play widgets.

Through comparative analysis, the design is refined to:

1. Add a decorative widget, be very conspicuous, let a person at a glance.

2. The widget can be spread very well, preferably when the user sees the resonance, and operates directly.

3. Use peaceful way of expression, not radical.

Let's go:

1. The thought of decorating widgets makes me think that many users like to add Flash in custom code and then let the animation float. A natural form of expression, you can float a piece of jewelry in the top right-hand corner of the blog.

2. What ornaments do you use? or hearts? If it is a very small red heart, the feeling is not eye-catching, and many people have added in MSN, certainly lack of freshness.

3. Peace. It must be something that users often touch, or something they like. It was natural to begin to observe colleagues ' desks, and it was a coincidence that the balloons that floated on the table came into sight. Peace ~ Let the person like ~ ornament ~ eye-catching ~ Well, everything fits.

So began the production of the balloon, my principle is that, since the amateur engage in, the lowest cost. In Baidu search some balloon pictures, found a favorite, redesign, and then please alien classmate made a flash, there is a float of the true feeling ~ on the balloon, marked with a clear love of Chinese, think about it, or the text is the most likely to cause users to resonate.

If you are careful, you will find that the second article in the design refining, how to spread has not been resolved.

Come up with a very ingenious but also controversial approach. Under this balloon, I did not enlarge the description text of the paragraph. The idea was that if the user recognized the balloon, he would naturally want to support it if he had a resonance with Lovechina. The red line of the balloon, it is easy to guide the user's eyes downward, I am under this balloon, with a "top" word. The word "top" has many advantages. A very simple straightforward, two is an easy to arouse people's interest, three is under the balloon, can guide the user can be the balloon top out, have a little sense of interest.

How to arouse the user's immediate action? There are also a few small ways to add balloons to activities that are more in line with the previous analysis.

"The red balloon, floating over the Sohu blog." Let us use sincerity, to express our love for the motherland. Tell friends to support Lovechina activities together. Don't hesitate to add it now! ”

Results:

It turns out that this little balloon is getting quite a bit more in a short amount of time than I thought before. Many netizens have commented that they like it, giving a very positive evaluation. The design of floating and top is also borrowed from many other widgets later. The idea of the small balloon to achieve, before and after only spent three hours, should be cost-effective very high. Of course, such widgets have their limitations, but the effect is sufficient.

Continued...

Being a widget is not the original idea, and the first reason to confuse and motivate action is that there is no better tool for testing ideas, and you don't know exactly what changes are brought by a little change.

At that time did a lot of other things, one is to let the top go to their own page, the page added statistics, in a simple word after the automatic jump back to Sohu Add Widget page. This makes it more natural and can be very clear about the changes in the data.

While doing the data recording, also carried on the on-line user interview. The advantage of Sohu's open platform is that you can know who has recently added the widget and is able to chat online with the blogger. At different times, the bloggers interviewed to learn about their preferences and needs for the widget. This is similar to the usual work, but also very effective.

For communication, there are also interesting data analyses. The first 300 added people, to 500 after the crazy spread, and then to the 10000~ has a significant rate of change ~ In addition, there are a lot of interesting discoveries, they are not listed.

Small balloon-inspired:

1. Demand comes from life and cannot be designed for design.

The need is to observe the life get, many times, in order to make a plan to force oneself to think, may be difficult to approach the truth. Because a lot of people's world, is you can not understand the world.

2. Design is not the more complex the better, but to be just right.

The right table now needs to use the most concise and appropriate form to express what the user wants to say. Most of the time, design does not come from you, but from the life experience of our ordinary people. Users often use the function, not from your creativity, but to their own some kind of inner need of resonance. Of course, except for artists.

3. If you determine what the user wants, try to highlight it, which is your competitive advantage.

4. Public events can easily be transmitted over a short period of time and may be used to make some generalizations.