Built For Conversation: The Interaction Design of Social Media

by Will Evans

Social Media Networks, because they are built on the collective participation of individuals, can only be effectively guided by means of a researched and learned examination of social psychology. It is the interaction designer's job to understand how social media ecosystems are likely to evolve, given the interaction of the application constraints with users -- each of which with their own goals, prejudices, social ties, needs for sociality and irrational decision-making.

Design choices affecting application design, functions, and features can only steer individual and aggregate participation within the social network. This talk will begin with the basics of social psychology as it pertains to social media and networking sites and give a brief overview of identity creation in the context of social networking theory.

We will discuss design patterns in social media site architecture and their impact on human behavior, and why interaction designers engaged in building social networking ecosystems must leverage sociology, social network analysis, and behavioral economics to ensure their social media site is Built for Conversation. Time permitting I will discuss two case studies - why social media/networking functionality failed on Kayak.com, and why it succeeded on Gather.com -- lessons learned the hard way.

ABOUT WILL EVANS

Will Evans is founder and Principal User Experience Architect forSemantic Foundry with 14 years industry experience in informationarchitecture user experience design. His experience includes directinginteraction design and information architecture for AIR Worldwide, UXarchitect for web 2.0 social networking site Gather.com, and UXarchitect responsible for information architecture and interactiondesign for Kayak.com. He has worked at enterprise technology companiesLotus/IBM (where he was the senior information architect), and Curl,a DARPA-funded MIT project at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.Most recently, Will has lead redesign projects incorporating socialmedia, crowdsourcing and social networking for startups and Fortune100 companies.

Will holds masters degrees in business administration, human-computerinteraction and cognitive psychology. His interests and studies havefocused on design, information architecture, human factors andinformation visualization. He earned his undergraduate degree inmathematics and philosophy.