:: Successful Social Networks Must be Relevant to End-User Goals

The concept of "social networking," "online communities," and "user generated content" has been around for years. It is nothing new. We've had newsgroups, bulletin boards, chat rooms, and multi-user-dimensions (MUDs). There was "Friendster" before "My Space," or even "Facebook"...so why even try to compete in this crowded landscape?

Companies add community-based tools to their websites for various reasons. The worst reason for doing it, however, is because "social networking" is trendy.

Social networks should be created to further business objectives, such as connecting individuals for site-specific purposes...or showcasing user contributions where these contributions will be advantageous to end-users. For example, dating websites should introduce community content to give participants a better understanding of each other prior to setting up dates. Artist portals should provide talent the means to upload and showcase their content. Discussion boards should be implemented in conjunction with content that normally inspires discussion.

The creation of a community for the sake of creating a community is a risky proposition. First of all, generic communities are ubiquitous on the internet. "My Space" and "Facebook" are major players in this space, and provide robust tools for social networking. Competing in the "generic community" category would require massive promotion, viral marketing, and/or richer community tools. Basically, you'd have to convince existing "My Space" and "Facebook" users who have invested time and effort into maintaining their existing profiles, that they should spend even more time and effort creating a new profile on a new, generic community. It is a fickle landscape, too. In 2005, it was tough to find individuals who didn't have a "My Space" profile. Now, it is tough to find people who aren't on "Facebook."

It seems as though long-term success of social networks rely upon their relevance to end-users. Consider "LinkedIn." Networking in a professional context is always important, and makes perfect sense via the online medium. Searching for colleagues, businesses, and professional opportunities makes the perfect platform for a rich community. "LinkedIn" got the formula right, and early enough to gain enough loyalty to make it difficult for existing users to waste time and effort re-creating their profiles on other professional networks. This is the perfect model for successful social networking online.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: Wii Woes - a 2007 Holiday Blog Special

Being a marketer as well as an interaction designer, I got sucked into the emotional maelstrom caused by the "Wii shortage of 2007."

I mean, c'mon, the damn console changed the way we fundamentally interact with video games! I deserve to own that thing. Unfortunately, like thousands (could it be millions?) of people worldwide, I will have to wait until Nintendo grows tired of "playing me."

To say that Nintendo pulled off a marketing miracle this year, is an understatement. With the "Wii" campaign, formerly the Nintendo "Revoultion," Nintendo focused on innovative gameplay...not what their competitors were doing. It worked. While Sony and Microsoft served up "all-in-one," high-tech, utility knives, Nintendo just made games fun to play. So, they had a really good product. Focusing on one core element also allowed them to make the product inexpensive to consumers (until the Christmas shopping crunch forced prices higher). Add to this magic potion, a sleek and clean piece of hardware reminiscent of an overgrown ipod, and you have a product that shows promise in the next generation console war.

Being a Sony loyalist, and up until I realized who I was...I struggled with the idea of purchasing a Sony PS3. But the fact is, I'm 36 years old, I work 70 hour weeks, and I just don't have time to get sucked into a sweeping RPG epic...I just want to unwind, after work, with a few rounds of virtual golf!

The console choice for me became obvious, and my hunger for the Wii grew stronger.

Excited about the finality of my decision, I trotted off to my local Best Buy to purchase a Wii. To this point, I had no idea about the global supply drought caused by the Wii hunger that was shared by people all over the world. Looking for the coveted console, I approached the sales guy walking the floor, and was met with the most condescending smirk and reply that I've ever received. Of course they didn't have the Wii. It was like I had missed the fact that the U.S. had waged a war on Iraq. I work online, spend most of my waking hours on the internet, how could I have missed that "Top Headline."

So, the hunt began...soon I was conducting epic Google, Froogle, eBay, and Link Crawler searches to get my hands on a Wii. EBay was the worst, man. I spent hours scanning all auctions with "buy it now" options. I even considered paying up to double the actual $250 price tag for the Wii.

I was up at all hours of the night, in the "Wii" hours you might say, to get my hands on the thing. Finally, my wife came into my office. She saw the dozen or so windows open on my PC desktop. She knew it was time for an intervention. Luckily, she stopped me from pulling the trigger on a shady auction listing on EBay. I was grounded...

I still have no Wii. But my wife's intervention may make the wait easier for me. I now only skim the EBay auctions on the weekend. It is merely a past-time. Of course, I probably won't get my hands on my own, shiny console until after the new year.

(reposted on Technorati Profile)

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: How to Increase Utilization of an Intranet

It's not difficult to figure out how to increase the utilization of a corporate intranet. It's simply a matter of understanding the daily workflow of its intended end-users.

An important point to keep in mind, is that employees don't go to an intranet solely for the purpose of reading corporate press releases...they go to perform useful tasks. Consultants simply need to ask employees what they do on a day-to-day basis, illustrate routines as end-user workflow diagrams, and create opportunities in taxonomy, design and architecture that facilitate employees' primary tasks.

Information Architects use a form of behavioral research called "contextual inquiry" to better understand the daily work routines of corporate end-users. Contextual inquiry involves interviewing end-users in their place of work. That doesn't mean a conference room...it means at their desks, in their cubicles, and in their offices.

What are some benefits of contextual inquiry?

1. Contextual inquiry enables IAs to take notice of their end-users' files, folders, and email "inboxes," in order to document trends in information organization (ultimately informing intranet taxonomies).


2. Participants feel more at ease, and are able to better recall daily work routines, when they are interviewed in familiar work environments. Usability labs and conference rooms often make participants nervous and disoriented, causing them to speculate rather than recall specific information and tasks.


3. Participants can walk their researchers through previous intranet and web interactions, exposing issues and potential opportunities.

Luckily, corporate intranets are intended to satisfy specific needs. That makes them easily engineered to achieve those needs. Whether it is facilitating primary, work-related tasks, educating and training staff, or providing vital documents, engineering a better user experience on a corporate intranet can be achieved through primary research.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: Defending Your Position Through Usability Testing

Contrary to what your colleagues and clients might think, information architecture and interaction design are not exact sciences. If your client believes that there is only one solution to a design or interface challenge, there is a potential for a bottleneck when you don't see eye-to-eye.

So, we have to make decisions. IAs must decide when to take a stand, from a purist, ideological stance, and when to "give a little." Does having to make these decisions violate the idealistic nature of our profession?

Absolutely not.

The beauty of our discipline, is that we are able to "try out" new ideas before we dismiss them as "unusable." Usability testing is our way of auditioning different design approaches to determine which are intuitive to end-users.

You may be able to use one of these "stand-offs" as a way to secure funding for your usability tests.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: Two-minute taxonomies

Did you ever need to develop an information architecture or taxonomy, but had no budget or time for primary research? I'm sure this is your situation in over half of your projects.

There are some really "down and dirty" tricks to develop meaningful taxonomies for a given topic or concept...check it out:

1. Let's say you need to develop an information architecture for a disease awareness website. Use the Overture keyword tool to find the most popular, related searches to the disease. These popular searches represent what active information seekers are actually looking for related to your topic! Use these topic modifiers as primary or secondary level category headers in your IA.

2. Cheat. If you are designing an e-commerce experience related to music, or other products, use "E-bay categories." E-bay's taxonomies are honed through community submission of auction items. You can bet that these organizational schemes represent the most commonly thought-of subdivisions of any given consumer-goods category.

There is no replacing primary research, but you don't always have to start from scratch. Remember, you can always push for taxonomy validation tests prior to design.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: Issues with Focus Group Testing

Conducting focus groups can be a great way to generate ideas, but don't use this technique as a way to document trends in behavior or end-user tasks.

Why?

It's simple. We are social animals. People, in a group setting, have a tendency to influence one another. Whether it is to impress, to encourage, or to blend in, people will act differently in front of others, than they do in isolation.

In a situation where a researcher wants to validate trends in behavior, he/she should study individual behavior, in isolation, and then compare this behavior with data from other 1-on-1 interviews. 1-on-1 interviews ensure that participant responses are not influenced by environmental bias...in other words, other people in the room!

Once again, focus groups ARE a legitimate method of conducting research.

When?

Use focus groups when YOU WANT other people to influence each other. The best use of a focus group is for a creative brainstorm, or to generate ideas.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab

:: Experience Architecture and Design: The Next Phase

Most, so-called, "Usability engineers" cling to a narrow definition of the concept of “Usability,” and miss the point when engaging in activities aimed at understanding what is really important to visitors. Empathy Lab has a unique and forward thinking approach to Experience Architecture, Design, and Usability Testing. The following describes our beliefs and approach to the design and measurement of compelling digital experiences:

Re-evaluate the metric of Usability

• When pressed to define the metric of “Usability,” most define it as a measurement of a system’s “ease-of-use.” Web agencies generally dedicate a team to this measurement, and to the pursuit of an engineered, easy-to-use experience. Empathy Lab agrees that easy-to-use experiences can be engineered, but disagrees that “ease-of-use,” in of itself, is an important metric. An easy-to-use experience is only important if it is used (i.e. – has a high rate of adoption). Empathy Lab believes that “Usability” and “Usage” are equally important. Furthermore, we feel that an easy-to-use experience does not guarantee a high rate of adoption. Therefore, we aim to create usable experiences that are also compelling to your visitors. We understand that emotional connections with your brand and content, as well as intuitive information architecture, will drive usage and repeat visits. Creating these types of connections requires a deeper insight into the individuals who will likely engage with your Web site

Re-evaluate the notion of a web “user”

• Because we strive to design compelling experiences as well as easy-to-use experiences, we are forced to re-evaluate the concept of a web “user.” The term “user” implies a focus on behavior. If Empathy Lab limited its focus to “user” behavior, we would only be able to engineer easy-to-use experiences. The creation of compelling experiences requires Empathy Lab to conduct extensive research aimed at understanding the personalities, lifestyle, attitudes and motivators of your potential visitors (as well as their onsite behavior). Our research and Usability testing tactics take into account all facets of the individual.

Re-evaluate the approach to Research

• It all begins with contextual inquiry. Empathy Lab studies individuals where they live, work, and play. Our initial research may take us to homes, schools, conferences, or places of employment. We immerse ourselves in the daily lives and important rituals of those who will likely be your web visitors. We learn what is important to people when they are most likely to interact with your brand. Armed with this research data, your visitors’ needs are documented in the form of personas, and made relevant within the context of their daily lives

Test early and often

• Concept Validation - Concept testing does not have to start in the design phase, but may be conducted earlier to validate a conceptual model for an information taxonomy, workflow, or architectural prototype. Conducting tests early in the requirements gathering process will ensure that the right conceptual models are constructed prior to costly design and development. Empathy Lab utilizes contextual card sorting, flowcharting, and categorization exercises as early methods of concept validation. We try to perform these activities “out in the field."
• Design Validation - We also differ from our competitors in our approach to “low-fi” design validation (paper prototyping). When conducting paper prototype testing on a design, Empathy Lab believes that it is more valuable to use an actual comp, or mock-up, rather than a wireframe (interaction design schematic). Because of the level of abstraction, wireframes and interaction design documentation are best used as internal tools to guide design and development, and not to put in front of test participants. Results of primary task completion exercises on a wireframe can never be trusted. Design validation can be performed anywhere, but must be performed in a comfortable environment, where the test subject feels at ease, and documented on video. Another point of differentiation is Empathy Lab’s use of design validation to measure visitor acceptance of the design, as well as success or failure in critical task completion (where our competitors limit their focus)
• Performance Analysis & Analytics - Measuring performance through ongoing quantitative analysis, surveys and analytics is important in making incremental changes and enhancements to content, architecture, interaction design, and visual design. Your site is constantly being monitored and measured according to the Key Performance Indicators that we identify with at the onset of our engagement with you.

Jonathan Lupo - VP / Information Architecture - Empathy Lab