I’ve been thinking a lot about social networking and it’s application in the real world. Social Networks (of the internet kind) are here to stay, and everyone is now trying to “socialise” their websites and online interaction by adding commenting or by blogging or something similar. You can even go on Facebook and Throw Sheep and other items (which I personally think is pointless).
Social networks are (and are increasingly going to) change the world we live in. The New Scientist article on Innovation: How Social Networking Might Change the World is an interesting starting point for the conversation.
Usability
I’ve been thinking about the applications that I use on these social networks and why. To be honest, the socialisation of the web is due to one factor and that is usabliity.
Most people when talking about usability focus on visual design, or if you’re very lucky, on how a user travels through a web experience. The functional design is sometimes discussed as well, and these kinds of applications often are better than most, but there is a more important factor
Simplicity and Speed of Interaction
The applications and social networks I use the most are Twitter, Email (yes it is a social network), commenting on Blogs and then Facebook. I am using Facebook and Email less and less, and here’s why:
It takes very little time to tweet and comment
In my busy day (and social networks makes life more busy, not less) I don’t want to have to write a full email, or even a blog post to get most of my points across. I want to be able to make my point, see the reaction and have a conversation.
My favourite apps that I use regularly:
- Twitter – simple way of just saying what you’re doing right now, and having a conversation with your friends
- SuperBadger (Facebook App) – change the world with a few simple clicks – and it really is changing the world!
People are now getting used to real time interactions, and there is beginning to be real time search too. http://search.twitter.com can now be incorporated into google using a Greasemonkey script: Greasemonkey Twitter Script. The speed with which we expect to interact is changing.
Building Social Applications
The issue with applications is now simplicity and speed. Barack Obama realised this with his twitter stream and iPhone app for the 08 Election in the US. Quick information, simple interaction and you can get it now. It was always about getting noticed, and the world is becoming more simple, not more complicated.
The applications that will win, are those that provide the user with the most power, whilst asking as little as possible in terms of time and thought. Twitter wins and so does SuperBadger for me.
