design whuffie
building stuff into your design to produce
mad, passionate, fervent love
by: tara ‘missrogue’ hunt

wtf

is

whuffie?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/437288525/

boingboing

cory

crazy

about

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/459418289/

he wrote

instead of $$

=

social capital

=

reputation

connections
(both strong and weak)

influence

access to resources/access
to more connections

favors added up
(reciprocity)

public accomplishments

levels of trust

etc.

in cory’s future

when you

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notic/86343146/

whuffie

score

high score

=

good reputation

trust them

listen to their advice

it also buys you stuff

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brraveheart/2072543750/

but this should sound

familiar

this ain’t the future

& it ain’t fiction

it’s real

right now

how

relate

online communities

2,600+ Facebook Friends

26,000+ twitter followers

1,400

I have strong or weak
connections to

I’m not telling you this to
show off

i’m not that unique

Blogs = >115Million+ (+China’s 75M)
MySpace = >110Million users
Facebook = >80Million users
Orkut = >75Million users
Twitter = >15 Million

people join these online
communities

to make

connections
+time
= trust
the basis of
=
whuffie

authenticity matters

if you want to become

whuffie rich

=

have people fall in love
with your product/service

build long term customer
loyalty

spread awesome word of
mouth

you need to build...

trust

it’s really as simple as that

but there is a catch

didn’t happen overnight

it required a different
perspective

a lot of time and attention

involves

5 principles for raising
whuffie

#1. turn the bullhorn
around

b2c communication b4 the
internet

then came the competition

got louder

and louder

and led to

main characteristic

impersonal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/179390300/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tin-g/90143310/

which is why people listen
to

if you are still

you’re totally missing out
on

http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/133146861/

if you really want to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klapow/39693385/

sounds easy, but it isn’t

focus on individuals

understanding the needs
of the entire community

that’s totally challenging

8 tips for being a beacon
for constant feedback:

1. get advice from experts, but design for the
needs of the novice
2. respond to ALL feedback, even when you
have to say ‘no thanks’
3. don’t take negative feedback personally
4. give credit to those whose ideas you
implement

some ways to give credit
• mention contributions in • send a gift certificate or
blog posts, tweets and special coupon code
videos
• schwag and schtuff
• name a product or
• upgrade their account
feature after the
contributor (or let them
name it)
• give the contributor
more responsibility
• send journalists their
way

5. point out and explain changes as you make
them
6. make small, continuous improvements
7. go out to find your feedback
8. ignore the haters

to really become

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klapow/39693385/

#2. become part of the
community you serve

for the ultimate in being
able to gr0k ur customers

what they want

anticipate their needs

tune in and turn them on

you need to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaxzine/172651123/

collaborate and share with
other designers

fall in love with what your
customers love

use competitor’s tools
until you love them, too

search thru ‘screenshot’
and ‘design patterns’
galleries on flickr

read A List Apart

go to conferences

barcamps

codejams

meetups

and everywhere you can
possibly meet creative, tuned
in people

and you’ll figure out what
makes the difference
between

and then you can...

#3. create amazing
customer experiences

and when I say amazing

I mean experiences that
lead to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lugolounge/6780004/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teointarifa/490408075/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60852569@N00/242746787/

creating these
experiences will

a couple of ways to do this

automagicness

automagic:
a user experience so
seamless that it feels like
magic

lilgrams.com

automagic sign ins

automagic posting to the
sites of your choice

automagic matching of
milestones with xif data from photos

automagic lilgram sender
to pre-defined recipients

automagic posting from twitter
from the road

quicken for iphone

automagic demo

automagic automagic automagic
bank machine spending balance
finder update updater

tripit.com

1. I book my flight/hotel

2. I forward the confirmation email
to plans@tripit.com

3. it’s automagically converted into
an itinerary for me

an automagic neat and tidy
awesome itinerary for me

and an iPhone application
for more magicness!

throwing sheep

throwing sheep:
ancillary fun, lightweight
activities that encourage
user participation

throwing sheep examples
• Facebook poking • Dopplr’s velocity metric
• Facebook ‘I Like This’ • Favoriting/starring
• Twitter nudging • Virtual gift giving
• Most tweets in general • Virtual walls
• Ma.gnolia’s give thanks • Pop Sugar’s karma
points
• Maya’s Mom’s kudos

lighten up!

lightening up:
the ability to inject fun
into the most serious &
professional interactions

virginamerica.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo

flickr.com
http://flickr.com/photos/joshb/1408947023/

some 404 error pages

apartmenthomeliving.com

d20srd.org

tinsanity.net
http://tinsanity.net/404

horsepigcow.com

the email responder is the
new 404

#4.
embrace the chaos

controlling the message?

heh

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiseacre/153532248/

I know...it’s hard to
embrace the chaos...

long history

of fear

the fear mongers
• corporate espionage
• competition
• security
• litigation
• bad-mouthers
• mistrust

it’s on their shoulders
• Legal
• Public Relations/Corporate Communications
• IT

understand the need
for security

but balance it with the
need for openness

there are many benefits
to openness and
transparency

benefits of embracing the
chaos
• you’ll be better prepared for the unexpected
• you’ll join in the conversation that is already
happening and be welcomed for this move
• it will bring in the opportunity for collaboration
• it will make your ideas stronger
• it will create supporters you didn’t know you
had

in the old days, you had
one chance to get
everything just right...

today, you have multiple
conversations and iterations to
build with your customers and
audience.

Funny how we create our own rat traps
in our success. Once we're 'there' we
can no longer do the stuff that made us
successful in the 1st place.

...or can we?

we’re just one more step away
from

here is some food for thought

while money is part of the

market economy

whuffie is part of the

it acts kind of opposite

the more you give away, the
more whuffie you gain

whuffie is only valuable
when it circulates

and as it circulates, it

but we still need to make $$
to pay the rent

so the question is...

what can you give away that
won’t leave you broke?

#5.
find your higher purpose.

born out of passion?

serving a need?

fighting the good fight?

maybe that stuff doesn’t
interest you

maybe you just want to

does it mean that you will be
whuffie poor?

nah.

you just have to find a way
to give back to the
community

the more you give, the more
that comes back

5 gifts to give that won’t
leave you broke

“nerd values”
do well by doing good

“...compared check-writing and
volunteering to cutting the leaves and
branches off a tree, where the heart of
the business and its ability to impact the
world positively is the tree itself.”
Gary Hirshberg, CEO, Stonyfield Farms

think customer-centrically

not customer-centric
• •
You do everything you can to You have a long list of customer
keep your customers on your relations policies. Any
website. exception to those policies has
to go up the chain of command
for approval.
• You measure number of visitors
and time spent on your website
•
as whether you are successful. You need to create multiple
instructional videos so that
your customers will understand
• When budgets get tightened, how to use your product.
you make cutbacks in areas like
customer service, marketing,
•
support staff and design. You demand social media
strategies that win over the
‘influencers’ to blog or tweet
• You are bothered by a customer about your product.
describing your product in their
own words that doesn’t match
your brand.

customer-centric
• •
You send customers to other Your customers are doing
websites. things with your product you
never dreamed and are posting
videos.
• You measure how many people
refer their friends to you as
•
success. Influencers are adding you as
friends on social networks.
• You let people feed in their
•
content from other sites easily. You work with your competitors
towards better customer
experiences for all.
• When budgets get tightened,
you tighten operational costs.
• You know you compete for your
customers’ attention with
• Your only customer service everyone.
policy is to do right by the
customer.

help others go further

spread love

akoha.com

value something bigger

•do well by doing good
•think customer-centrically
•help others go further
•spread love
•value something bigger

whuffie

will grow over time

so combine all of the

•turn the bullhorn around
•become part of the community you
serve
•create amazing experiences
•embrace the chaos
•find your higher purpose

you will raise whuffie

whuffie rich

=

better word of mouth

repeat sales

customer loyalty

=

big, fat increase to your
bottom line

which will help you buy stuff

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brraveheart/2072543750/

which is why whuffie is
the wiser way.

end.

Order
Whuffie
today!
http://thewhuffiefactor.com

licensing:
http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue

about those rockin’ images:
• Many are from iStockphoto.com (totally cool
site)
• except as marked on the photo...
• a screenshot of my friendwheel: http://
apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• and the logos & screengrabs I stole from all of
the respective sites...

some references
• Lilgrams http://www.lilgrams.com
• TripIt http://www.tripit.com
• Akoha.com http://www.akoha.com
• Facebook http://www.facebook.com
• Twitter http://www.twitter.com
• Creative Commons: http://www.creativecommons.org
• Quicken: http://quicken.intuit.com/
• Maya’s Mom: http://www.mayasmom.com
• Dopplr: http://www.dopplr.com
• Friend Wheel: http://apps.facebook.com/friendwheel
• Great internet stats: http://pewinternet.org
• Whuffie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie
• 404 Research Lab: http://plinko.net/404/
• More awesome 404: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
2009/01/29/404-error-pages-one-more-time

Tara missrogue
Hunt
marketing lead, Intuit Partner Platform
horsepigcow@gmail.com
415.694.1951
twitter: missrogue
skype: tarahunt747
www.horsepigcow.com