10 lessons from the design of SlideShare

Fast, cheap & somewhat in control 10 lessons from the design of SlideShare

Rashmi Sinha

SlideShare & Uzanto

working at a startup…

traditional UX methods or agile design

SlideShare

launched Oct 2006

Presentations are hard to share

A social critique of PowerPoint

Large-scale sharing

A social space, not a utility: Office 2.0?

First generation Social Networks (Friendster, LinkedIn…) 1) I am linked to -> -> to you --->You are linked to her -> ---> on…

How it works

People connect to each other

Six degrees of separation

“ Are you my friend” type of awkwardness

Second generation social network (networks with objects in between, e.g., Flickr, Yahoo answers) 1) I share my pics -> -> with you ---> -->You share your pics -> ---> with him

How it works

People share objects | watch others

Connections through objects

Social info streams: emergence of popular, interesting items

good content floats to top

Multiple models of popularity

Users drive navigation

Slides as MICROCONTENT

URL for every slide

Comment on individual slides

What people share on SlideShare

Venture capitalists share advise

Ministers share sermons

Teachers share lesson plans

Entrepreneurs share business plans

10 Lessons from SlideShare

1. The alpha as the first reaction

2. The beta is the market probe

Research is about hypotheticals, get feedback to real thing

Our methods are individualistic

What is the risk of failure?

How developed should the Beta be?

Get basic concept across and no more

Leave room for flexibility

2. You don’t need personas

When you know your users by name

They want to visit your offices

They email you everyday

Get into a conversation with users

Answer emails personally

Monitor blogs, subscribe to RSS

Customer service as user research

3. Launch first, refine later

Don’t over-analyze

Look at best practices, take a guess

Put it out there. Respond. Refine.

4. There is something about social websites

Design works differently than design for individual

MindCanvas as design for the individual Usability Control Interaction Flow Engagement

SlideShare as design for the crowd People interacting Following each other Wisdom of crowds

5. designer-developer role is crucial

Easier communication

Reduced design work

6. Design deliverables should be approachable

Created with common desktop apps

Editable by everyone

7. Under invest in visual design

Let users feel ownership of space

Unpolished look is fine

8. Pay attention to technical simplicity Balance user needs & technical simplicity Complexity > slower, riskier, harder to maintain

9. Single biggest win: make app faster

10 . designers as entrepreneurs

How to find first 1000 users or first 100 customers

Lifestyle business?

Find yourself a developer partner Focus on execution You cannot just “hire a developer”

Picture of data center

Do you need traditional UX methods to design a SlideShare ?

YES : When feedback becomes a torrent

Feedback form not enough. Too unstructured

Issues need prioritization. Diff user groups

Users have specific expectancies from product

New team members need summary info

Improvements beyond low hanging fruits

Designing completely new features

Capitulate Collaborate or Initiate

Marianne Sweeny

sometimes process & methods can be a baggage when to let it go engineers have had to when will it be time for designers?

be experimental. create something Mashup RSS feeds (Yahoo Pipes/Popfly) Build your own social network (Ning) Play with an API (Google Maps)

Finally

Some summit slides

http://www.slideshare.net/tag/iasummit07

you can find me at

http://www.slideshare.net/rashmi

10 lessons from the design of SlideShare

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