Discovery Is The New Cocaine - Going Beyond Engagement

Discovery is the new cocaine Going beyond engagement By: Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio) Note: Section on “ Flow ” was derived from “ The Science Of Designing Interactions” (SXSW 2008) by Andreas Weigend (people and data), and Ming Yeow Ng (Discoverio)

Why should you care about Discovery?
First off…

What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible ?
We are programmed for scarcity and can't dial back even when information is abundant
… (addictive sites) all presented new information that somehow needed to be interpreted …
this triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good …
From Wall Street Journal:
Source: WSJ, Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data March 12, 2008

Done right, Discovery can make a website irresistible!
In other words….

Desire by humans to be a live node in the network
We are always…
“ Constantly scanning the peripheral, always motivated by the desire not to miss opportunities”
“ Desire for other people recognizing us , make us feel important.”
“ Services that win are those that help us protect, filter, create meaningful connections ”
Linda Stone
What drives Discovery?
Source: Etech 2006

What is Discovery?
Allowing users to:
Discover new, valuable information
Get Discovered by others
Discovering more about themselves

Discovery of Information New and Richly interpretable information triggers chemical reactions
Facilitate user towards:

Twitter, Friendfeed: Constant stream of new information
New information

Facebook Breakups
“ Who was she ?”
“ Was his girlfriend pretty??”
“ You mean she is gay???”
Richly Interpretable

Get Discovered by Others “ Who is paying attention to me?” “ Am I being recognized ?”
Helping users to:

MyBlogLog Who is checking me out?
Who is paying attention to me?
Twitter Who is following me?

Discover More About Themselves “ Who am I to others ?” “ What do I like ?”
Allowing users to:
Key here: People do not know what they want!

Tickle: What am I ? (400 million personality tests taken)
The Old Personality Test
The New Personality Test What am I to others ?

Amazon : Collective Recommendation
What do I like?
Stylefeeder: Analyzing attributes

Facilitate the Discovery Cycle for your users
Taking all 3 types together:

The Discovery Cycle for Your App
Continuous Learning, Contributing, Recognition Engage and allow contribution of information , leaving of footprints , and giving of feedback 2) System to generate new insights for user 1) Discovery of Content and Users 3) Other Users to discover him Data becomes basis for: Personalized Recommendations Interactions that lead to reciprocity and interactions User learning more about himself Throughout the process: (Keeps him coming back!) Meaningful connections gets established

“ Intermittent Variable Reinforcement “
“ One of Skinner's most important discoveries was that behavior that is reinforced intermittently is much more difficult to extinguish than behavior that is reinforced continuously .“ – via Kathy Sierra
"You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle.“ - Patricia Wallace on slot machines
Done right, this leads to

Discovery is less about predicting precisely right about what the user wants It is more about the entire user flow of discovery , with all the hits and misses
In other words...
Think window shopping down the mall or walking through an expo hall

Discovering Activity by Social Graph Based on live updates My good friend The guy with great events The babe I check out Based on collective behavior and attention data

Collective Judging Collective Behavior

No concept of individual Personalization

Crowdvine: Updated profiles, comments are on front page Helping users get discovered Clear attention/intention data Crowdvine: want-to-meet, fan

Apache Social Network: Open source projects worked on together
Connecting based on commonalities

Exploitation Exploration

Connecting based on mutual interest

Randomness that shows the new and richly interpretable
Flickr: Interestingness Etsy: Many ways to shop

Etsy: 10 different fun ways to discover! (boring categories are at the end)
Make it fun to explore

Understanding the elements of “flow” Feedback, Rewards, Lightweight, Reducing uncertainty
How to create the right user experience?
Inspired by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

Direct and immediate feedback Successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed
Elements of flow (1)

Feedback can be by system or can be by other users
Feedback for users to guide their future behavior
Metrics for: Maslow Hierarchy Contribution to others Achievements Popularity Wrong-doings

Yelp: popularity, achievement, and contribution
How am I doing?

Cash = power Value = desirability
Points as indicators of power and desirability

Linkedin Profile Completeness Pointing out “deficiencies” to induce actions
Setting expected “norm”

Rewards Intrinsically Rewarding Clarity of Reward Recognition for contribution
Elements of flow (2)

Twitter: Self Expression is its own reward
Intrinsically Rewarding

Twitter: Validation, and Social Interaction are powerful rewards by themselves
Intrinsically Rewarding

Clear recognition for intended actions
Digg: Made popular by… Crowdvine: Updated profiles, comments are on front page

Best Match: Invite 10 to see “best matches”
Making Rewards Clear and Explicit

GetSatisfaction: I have this question too!
Suggest action and clarify reward

Lightweight Interactions Make it easy for users to contribute
Elements of Flow (3)

Crowdvine: Fan : expression of confidence Want-to-meet: initiate relationship
Lightweight, In the moment expressions
Yelp: Variety of lightweight interactions directly on reviews

Lijit: Made the process entertaining and a little mysterious, with rewards at each step
Make user do as little as possible
Signup Time 15m -> 2m Conversion 0.1% -> 4% Source: Lijit, SXSW 2008 Automated retrieval of external data, all user needs to do is confirm

Woot: One Single Action
Do not make users think

Reducing fear and uncertainty Uncertainty, even irrelevant uncertainty kills action
Elements of Flow (4)

Twitter: Communicating with little fear of incurring cost to recipient
Assurance that it is up to recipients’ “mode of receiving”

Zoosk: Flirt vs risk
Reducing Personal Commitment

HotorNot: No risk of “rejection”
Surfacing Improbable Matches

Crowdvine: Showing social behavior right on frontpage
Reducing uncertainty on “correct” behavior
Latest Comments

Day Trading
Elements of Addiction
MMORPG
Attractor: Things happening outside your control in the system, yet affecting your status
Motivator: You have a stake (self-esteem/emotional/financial) in changes happening to your status
Source: "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction" Nick Yee

Systematically Introducing Discovery Into Your App (uncompleted)
Know what data points you need (Individual / Collective / External)
Know what mode of discovery (Recommendations / Search / Browsing)
Create pathways of discovery (Filtering / Anchoring )
Maximize exploration / exploitation within the pathway (Intention / Attention)
Providing reasons/context for discovery ( Context/Persona/Content)
Facilitating mediums for connections (Currency / Reputation)
Understand what metrics you need (Diversity, Virality, Engagement)
Process by Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio)

We LOVE Feedback!!!
Discovery is a new, unexplored and very exciting area to be innovating in, and we love to hear from anyone who is just as excited about this as us!
Touch base with us via any of these mechanisms
mingyeow@discoverio.com | @mingyeow (twitter)
yushan@discoverio.com | @ambivalence (twitter)

http://mrtweet.net	1444
http://www.mrtweet.net	1118
http://discoverio.com	677
http://discover.io	627
http://salesmarketinghelpcentral.blogspot.com	523
http://www.thekmiecs.com	447
http://v3.mingyeow.com	431
http://brandonmurphy.typepad.com	325
http://www.netpaths.net	247
http://thenextweb.com	206
http://seedwatcher.typepad.com	189
http://www.upthevortex.nl	129
http://blog.swiftkickonline.com	124
http://www.uberbin.net	87
http://www.discoverio.com	83
http://mediatransparent.com	74
http://www.drwebuse.com	72
http://openbrands.org	48
http://donkeyontheedge.com	47
http://mrtweet.com	47
http://www.slideshare.net	46
http://www.donkeyontheedge.com	44
http://marketingusabile.blogspot.com	44
http://www.madebymany.co.uk	43
http://socialmediatoday.com	39
http://teamforty.com	37
http://www.schneiderism.com	36
http://skoldator.wordpress.com	34
http://www.gauravonomics.com	33
http://weiksner.com	33
http://blendingthemix.com	30
http://teamcamp.ca	30
http://earlstevens58.blogspot.com	26
http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com	26
http://www.technologyhead.com	24
http://twitwall.com	22
http://www.niall-larkin.com	22
http://www.openbrands.org	21
http://www.ikaro.net	19
http://www.swiftkickonline.com	19
http://www.socialmediatoday.com	18
http://pellepedagog.se	17
http://daniseuba.wordpress.com	17
http://directmarketingobservations.com	17
http://www.callsignbentley.com	14
http://housley.me	14
http://njthompson.typepad.com	13
http://socialgumbo.com	13
http://pellepedagog.blogspot.com	12
http://marketingusabile.blogspot.it	12
http://dvector.com	12

Discovery Is The New Cocaine - Going Beyond Engagement

by Ming Yeow Ng

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

173 Embeds 8,081

Statistics