Social Interaction Design
Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali
intenseminimalism.com

who am I?

hybrid professional

development

design development

psychology
design development

mindset

determination
1

determination
as constant self-improvement
1

team
2

team
working together is critical
2

fail fast
3

fail fast
try early and, if it doesn’t work, fail fast
3
@ http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html

criticism
4

criticism
it’s good: accept it and build upon it
4

vertical vs horizontal
5

vertical vs horizontal
different kinds of intelligence exist
5
@ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence

“ Our greatest glory is not in never falling,
but in raising every time we fall.
- Confucio

io n
a t
in s t m
rm fa c is
e te a m il ri ti | h
d te fa c v
1 2 3 4 5

theory

The walkman
Designed to isolate oneself,
used to connect people.

MoDe: Motivational Design

Functional Needs 1
Relational Motivations 2
Social Usability 3
Circadian Activity Flow 4

1 Functional Needs
Action /
Satisfaction
Solution

1 Functional Needs
Action /
Need Satisfaction
Solution
You have to go back to real
needs and solve them

FUNCTIONAL NEEDS
Word

FUNCTIONAL NEEDS
Word
but... text solves the need
of sharing knowledge!

FUNCTIONAL NEEDS
Google Docs
sharing

2 Relational Motivations
competition excellence
affection curiosity

3 Social Usability
Interpersonal Relations
How easy is it to find other people and connect to them?
How easy is it to keep those connections alive?
Identity
How rich is one’s personal identity expression?
How much are interests and passions expressed?
Communication
How fast can a message reach the other person?
How easy is it to handle conversations (1-to-1, 1-to-some, 1-to-many)?
Group Emergence
How easy is to create groups?
How active are groups once estabilished?

INT. RELATIONS Many ways to discover.
FriendFeed
channels
activities
friend’s faves

IDENTITY You can customize almost everything.
MySpace
background
music
avatar
menu blog
colors

IDENTITY Scattered identity.
Facebook
infos
photo
activities

COMMUNICATION Great messaging panel.
DeviantArt
chat
messages
comments
forums

GROUP EMERGENCE Groups at its foundation.
Google Wave
new discussions
discussions

4 Circadian Activity Flow
It’s the sequence of small and
big actions made during the
span of a day, prioritized
through competing individual
value hierarchies.
The four most relevant factors determining the Flow:
Priority Easiness Proximity Efficacy

4 Circadian Activity Flow
24 HOURS Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 6
Task 7

4 Circadian Activity Flow
24 HOURS Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Insertion
Task 6
Task 7

“ It is a miracle
that curiosity
survives formal education.
- Albert Einstein

try, then go deeper

how many levels you need to
play in order to say that you know
how World of Warcraft works?
1. Level 30
2. Level 50
3. Level 80

hint: it’s more than just levels

occasional users
power users

many occasional users
power users

many occasional users
strong power users

it’s a balance

how many followers you need in
order to say that you know how
Twitter works?
1. 20 followers
2. 100 followers
3. 1.000 followers
4. 20.000 followers

you may have guessed it...

...it’s not a matter of numbers!

different dynamics
with
different numbers

“ Men in general judge more from
appearances than from reality.
All men have eyes, but few have
the gift of penetration.
- Oscar Wilde

practice

Self improvement circle
Know
Do Think

User Centered Design
Know
Do Think

The process is important.

We refer to our overall approach as
"design thinking": a means of problem
solving that uses design
methodologies to tap into a deep
reservoir of opportunity. These
methods include observation,
prototyping, building, and storytelling,
and can be applied by a wide range of
people to a breadth of organizational
challenges.

...some practices
Know Think Do
• Benchmarks • Brainstorms • Develop
• Analysis • Select solutions • Pair programming
• Best Practices • Scenarios • Automated tests
• Cutting Edge Solutions • Personas • Refactoring
• User tests • Wireframes • Releases
• Polls • Paper prototypes • Fixes
• Focus groups • Prototypes • ...
• ... • Visual design
• ...

Release fast

Release fast
Get feedback fast

Release fast
Get feedback fast
Iterate fast

The best companies do it.

Google
continuous user testing with labs, a/b, betas, etc.
@ http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9954972-7.html

BJ Fogg
many crummy trials beat deep thinking
@ http://www.slideshare.net/bjfogg/10-million-in-10-weeks-what-stanford-learned-building-facebook-apps

Apple
seems doing it... inside: 10 to 3 to 1
“Apple designers come up with 10 entirely
different mock ups of any new feature. Not,
Lopp said, "seven in order to make three look
good", which seems to be a fairly standard
practice elsewhere. They'll take ten, and
give themselves room to design without
restriction.
Later they whittle that number to three,
spend more months on those three and then
finally end up with one strong decision.”
@ http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/03/apples_design_p.html

“ Beauty and brains,
pleasure and usability
go hand-in-hand
in good design.
- Donald Norman

simplicity × complexity

“ Complicare è facile,
semplificare è difficile.
Per complicare basta aggiungere,
tutti sono capaci di complicare.
Pochi sono capaci di semplificare.
- Bruno Munari

Davide ‘Folletto‘ Casali
intenseminimalism.com
@folletto
folletto@gmail.com
SocialMediaLab
Milano, 13 novembre 2009
socialmedialab.net