Masters Thesis defense for Sameer Ahuja, July 17th, 2009. This presentation was live streamed on ustream.tv and Second Life. The video recording of the Ustream.tv livecast is available here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1823531

1. A Tale of Two Sites
An Explora7ve Study of the Design and Evalua7on of Social Network Sites
Sameer Ahuja
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2. Overview
Instant Background
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3. Building soCware that is deployed to a community
is different from building soCware that is deployed to
individual users
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4. [...] the success and growth of social so5ware stems from the
con7nuous tango between technological advancement and
technological advancement
incremental user par3cipa3on, and the net product is neither
incremental user par3cipa3on
cleanly social nor technological in nature.
‐ boyd
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5. technological advancement
incremental user par3cipa3on
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6. (features)
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7. ((features) + sociological effects)
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8. So when we design, we need to think about the
sociological effects we are hoping to achieve.
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9. And when we evaluate, we need to see if we are
achieving those effects.
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10. In this thesis we specifically look at the problem of
forma&ve evalua7on of social network sites.
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11. Forma7ve?
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12. When the cook tastes the soup, thats forma7ve;
when the guests taste the soup, thats summa7ve.
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13. But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
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14. But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
To find fundamental issues and glaring
omissions in the support of social ac7ons on
the social network site
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15. To reduce the risks involved in evalua7ng
only when the soCware is in the wild
But why do it, and why do it at a forma7ve stage?
To find fundamental issues and glaring
omissions in the support of social ac7ons on
the social network site
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16. A few defini7ons
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17. Social Network Sites
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18. We define social network sites as web‐based services that
allow individuals to
(1) construct a public or semi‐public profile within a
bounded system
(2) ar7culate a list of other users with whom they
share a connec7on
(3) view and traverse their list of connec7ons and
those made by others within a system
‐boyd, Ellison
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19. 16

20. Social Networking Sites
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21. Social Affordance
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22. Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or
virtual, which invite and facilitate social interac7on
among the par7cipants in that space
‐ Howarth, Pyla, Yost, and Haciahmetoglu
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23. Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or
virtual, which invite and facilitate social interac7on
among the par7cipants in that space
‐ Howarth, Pyla, Yost, and Haciahmetoglu
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24. Social Affordance
The quality of ar7facts in any space physical or
virtual, which invite and facilitate social ac7ons
among the par7cipants in that space
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25. Social Ac7ons
We define social ac7ons in the context of social
network sites as ac7ons that affect the social capital
of the community using the site
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26. Social Capital
We use James Coleman’s defini7on, which suggests
that social capital is anything that facilitates individual
or collec7ve ac7on, generated by networks of
rela7onships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms.
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27. Colloki / Slurp! CATspace
h[p://slurp.cs.vt.edu h[p://apps.facebook.com/catspace
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28. Colloki
• Centered around local delibera7on
• Aggrega7on and dissemina7on of content
from and to distributed sources
• Uses a set of social and organiza7onal
features to promote engagement
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29. CATspace
• Computer Science Assignment Repository
• Bring instructors from different ins7tu7ons
into a common plaborm (Facebook)
• Leverage already exis7ng social connec7ons
on Facebook
• Use social features to promote collabora7on
and itera7on over assignments
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30. 25

31. Social Ac7ons
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32. Social Browsing
“finding new people”
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33. Social Search
“finding more about people you know”
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34. Interac7on
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35. Sharing content
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36. Collabora7on
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37. Features
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38. Tagging
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High High Good
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39. Ac7vity Streams
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High
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40. User Profiles
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
High High
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41. Comments
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Good Good High Good
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42. Ra7ngs / Votes
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Good
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43. Design Expecta7ons
Social Browsing Social Search Interac7on Sharing Content Collabora7on
Tagging High High High Good
Ac7vity
High High
Streams
Profiles High High
Comments Good Good High Good
Ra7ng/Votes Good
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44. Study
10 Par7cipants
Graduate Students at Virginia Tech
Colloki: 5 par7cipants CATspace: 5 par7cipants
Graduate Students in Departments Graduate Students in Department of
other than Computer Science at Virginia Tech Computer Science at Virginia Tech
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45. Protocol
• Pre‐Evalua7on Survey on usage of SNS,
demographics
• 5‐Minute Video demo of the soCware
• Set of tasks to perform on the soCware
• Post‐Evalua7on Ques7onnaire
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46. Simulated Community
• Derived from posts and ac7vity of alpha‐
stage users, represented ‘expected’ use.
• First fold rule
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47. Results
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48. Overall Usability
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49. Overall Usability
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50. Overall Usability
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51. Overall Usability
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52. Overall Usability
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53. Overall Usability
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54. “The Tagging thing was odd. I had to click on a tag which took
me to a page that had all posts with the tag. Then from there I
had to click on one of the posts, then go to its author and see if
he or she had that tag in the tag cloud. That’s cumbersome.”
‐ Colloki Par7cipant
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55. “I think this profile looks a liFle empty. You can have a list of
users with similar stuff here, kindof like facebook friend list.
Actually, you could show the person's facebook friends (who
are on CATspace) right here.”
‐ CATspace Par7cipant
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56. Tagging
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57. Tagging
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58. Ac7vity Streams
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59. Ac7vity Streams
48

60. Ac7vity Streams
48

61. Ac7vity Streams
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62. Ac7vity Streams
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63. Ac7vity Streams
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64. Ac7vity Streams
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65. Colloki
Which one of the five topics listed on the homepage do you
think has been the most ac7ve recently amongst the slurp
community?
CATspace
Which is the latest assignment that he (Steve Edwards) has
published?
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66. In almost all cases in CATspace (And all cases in
Colloki), par7cipants u7lized other user interface
elements to find their answers.
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67. 52

68. User Profiles
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69. User Profiles
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70. User Profiles
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71. User Profiles
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72. “[...] but where can I leave him a message? Do I have to go to
the Facebook profile for that? How do I go to the Facebook
profile from here?”
‐ CATspace Par7cipant
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73. Comments
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74. Ra7ngs/Votes
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75. Ra7ngs/Votes
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76. Ra7ngs/Votes
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77. Ra7ngs/Votes
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78. Ra7ngs/Votes
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79. Ra7ngs/Votes
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80. Ra7ngs/Votes
?
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81. Discussion
• Collabora7on ac7on didn’t have suppor7ng
tasks
• Could have broadened the number of
ac7ons, and custom‐chosen ac7ons for
features
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82. Future Work
• Valida7ng / Evalua7ng user responses to
actual usage
• Broader taxonomy of ac7ons
• Figuring out how to do this without
overloading the par7cipants with ques7ons
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83. Thank You!
Q & A
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