This document outlines principles for designing social experiences and interactions. It discusses how people live in networks and are influenced by others. It emphasizes designing systems, not just destinations, to account for these networks. It identifies three key areas of social design: identity, connectedness, and communication. For each area, it provides design principles such as giving privacy controls in context, showing commonalities between loosely connected people, and supporting lightweight interactions to build relationships over time. The overall message is that social design must consider how people are shaped by and engage with their complex social networks.

1. A SET OF PRINCIPLES
FOR DESIGNING
SOCIAL EXPERIENCES
@PADDAY PAUL ADAMS
UX LONDON APRIL 2013

2. Social Design matters to a! of us
because the internet is changing.
It is evolving "om being built
around content linked to content,
to content organised and filtered by
people’s interests and relationships.

3. Friends
Interests
Friends’ Interests
We’re moving "om this... To this...

4. EVERYTHING
PERSONALISED
+ CONNECTED.
EVERYWHERE.

5. Social Design
The design of products + services
that help people communicate
with one another, and understand
each other’s opinions.

6. 1. NETWORKS
2. IDENTITY
3. CONNECTEDNESS
4. COMMUNICATION

7. NETWORKS

8. PEOPLE LIVE
IN NETWORKS.

9. Many design projects consider people as independent
actors, interacting with a user interface. So ca!ed
‘human-computer interaction’.
But people are not independent. We a! live in complex
systems where our behaviour, attitudes and perceptions
are continua!y shaped by other people around us.
People live in networks. We are almost always designing
human-human interaction. HCI interfaces are o$en a
means to an end.

10. BUYING A FLIGHT?

11. OR GOING AWAY
WITH FRIENDS?

12. Our social networks are complex and scale
exponentia!y. We can’t comprehend the
complexity so we a! live in ‘an invisible
network’ of "iends and "iends of "iends.
Our invisible network can dramatica!y
change our behaviour.

13. You and your five closest "iends.

14. You and your five closest "iends.
Plus one of your "iend’s "iends.

15. You and your five closest "iends.
Plus two of your "iend’s "iends.

16. You and your five closest "iends.
Plus three of your "iend’s "iends.

17. You and your five closest "iends.
Plus four of your "iend’s "iends.

18. You and your five closest "iends.
Plus five of your "iend’s "iends.

19. You and your ten closest "iends.
And their "iends.

20. You and your twenty closest "iends.
And their "iends.

21. So people live in networks of
incredible complexity.
However, these networks have clear
patterns, and understanding those
patterns leads to lots of opportunity.
More on that a bit later.

22. DESIGN SYSTEMS,
NOT DESTINATIONS.

23. If the web is being rebuilt around people, and people live
in networks, then it becomes very clear that we need to
design systems, not destinations.
Just as an architect must understand how their new
building wi! impact the surrounding landscape, and
how that landscape wi! shape the use of the building,
we must understand the network in which what we
create wi! live. This means understanding a! the
components, the relationships between the components,
and the ways in which they wi! impact each other.

24. FACEBOOK IS
NOT A WEBSITE.

25. NEWSFEED
STORY
"fb:app_id"
"og:type"
"og:title"
"og:image"
"og:description"
OPEN GRAPHTIMELINENOTIFICATIONS CANVASPAGE
MESSAGESGROUPS
log-in with fb
plug-ins
APIs
SDKs
PLATFORM
FACEBOOK IS
AN ECO-SYSTEM.
*and this diagram is only a sma! part of that eco-system

26. NEWSFEED
STORY
"fb:app_id"
"og:type"
"og:title"
"og:image"
"og:description"
OPEN GRAPHTIMELINENOTIFICATIONS CANVASPAGE
MESSAGESGROUPS
log-in with fb
plug-ins
APIs
SDKs
PLATFORM
*and this diagram is only a sma! part of that eco-system

27. So it is clear that designing
destinations (to drive traffic to) is
becoming redundant. The best
designers wi! design systems, and to
do that successfu!y they wi! study
how people interact with one another.

28. Social interaction has been studied by academics since
records began. It’s complex, and easy to get lost in the
details. But we care mostly about shipping great
products and services rather than academic
thoroughness. So we need to:
- Simplify the complexity into three areas.
- Look at key research in those areas.
- Generate design principles to inform development.
- Build and ship something to test if it works.

29. THREE AREAS OF SOCIAL DESIGN
IDENTITY
How we control how others perceive us.
CONNECTEDNESS
A! the people we’re connected to and how we feel about a! those people.
COMMUNICATION
Why we talk to people we’re connected to, what we talk about.

30. IDENTITY

31. How we control how others
perceive us...and how they
perceive us despite our
attempts at control...

32. We have a personal identity and
a social identity.
Therefore design for either personal
or social identity.
Our personal identity helps us feel unique. Yet this differentiation is
often illusory, as many people distinguish themselves similarly. We
can feel unique while objectively looking very similar to others.
Our social identity helps us feel the same as others. It is our identity
that is shaped by the world around us. It helps us connect to others
based on feelings of sameness.
Our identity is shaped not just by what we say and do, but also by
what our connections say and do. They write on our Facebook
walls; their behavior is apparent when beside us in photos. Our
connections also say things about us, which shapes our identity in
the eyes of others.
When people observe us, and judge our identity, they also look at
the people we spend time with, their behavior, and the
environments we inhabit together.
Therefore...
...when designing, consider both personal or social identity. It’s
usually best to optimize an experience for one of personal or social
identity. It’s possible to incorporate both into one experience but
the best way to do so successfully is to consider each
independently first.
Facebook Timeline is primarily about personal identity.

33. Our identity is shaped by the
communities we grow up in.
Therefore influence social norms by
building on existing community
behavior.
How we see ourselves, and how we wish to represent ourselves to
others, is shaped by years of life experiences, by the cultures and
communities we grew up in, and by the people we surround
ourselves with every day.
Our values were transmitted from our family, community, church,
profession, society, country, and so on, and are continually refined
by the people we spend time with and the environments we spend
time in. We use everyday conversation to continually shape and
refine our identity, which in turn influences how we act.
We’re not born into a neutral environment. We’re born into a
specific culture, a set of habits and rituals, attitudes and beliefs,
that guide how we behave. We learn these unwritten rules from
observing the behavior of people around us and their reactions to
our behavior. Culture is an emergent system. It forms from the
common actions and behaviors of many people who are reacting to
other peoples’ behavior.
Therefore...
...influence social norms by building on existing
community behavior.
My Timeline during the Euro 2012 footba! competition.
I am Irish and it profoundly impacts how I see the world.

34. We remain consistent with past
behavior.
Therefore design new experiences to
fit with pre-existing beliefs.
Once we decide something, we tend to stick to that decision, even
when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is true
for things we say, things we write down, and things we do. This
effect is greatest when other people see us act.
Even if the decision turns out not to be in our best interests, we still
stick with that decision to be consistent with our past decisions.
When we receive new information, we analyze and store it in ways
that reinforce what we already think.
We may act one way with one group, forcing us to act consistently
when with them in the future, whereas we may act differently with
another group. These subtle differences in behavior with our
different groups lead to awkward interactions when these groups
come together, for example, at weddings and birthday parties.
Therefore...
...because of our desire for consistency with past actions, we are
more open to ideas when they fit with our pre-existing beliefs. It
makes it easier for us to accept the new idea.
...understanding your consumers’ beliefs is also important for
determining what they will share. Content that fits their beliefs and
past behavior is much more likely to be shared than content that
conflicts with their past behavior.
The things I have ‘liked’ in the past wi! inform what I do in the future.

35. Privacy is a process of boundary
management.
Therefore give people privacy
controls in context with other actions.
Privacy is about controlling how much other people know about you
and is directly related to the relationships we have with other
individuals. We tell our doctor things we wouldn’t tell our friends.
We tell our work peers things we wouldn’t tell our boss. And there
are some things (for example, health issues, infidelity, surprise
parties) that we keep secret from those closest to us.
We tell different things to different people depending on whether
they are a strong, weak, or temporary tie. People extend the most
trust to people they know offline.
Our strongest ties know our likes and dislikes, our opinions, our
relationships with others, our character, our emotions, our capacity
for loyalty. We trust them to keep this information private, and not
spread it to others unless it’s appropriate.
Therefore...
... give people privacy controls in context, rather than relying on
their privacy settings being set appropriately.
...the best solution for some privacy issues may not be to give
people lots of controls and options, but to design an environment in
which the social norms people have offline are replicated online.
Facebook redesigned privacy controls to put them ‘in-line’.

36. People have a very poor
understanding of how businesses
use their data.
Therefore explain why personal data
is needed, and how it wi! be used.
People often don’t realize how much information they have
disclosed, and how easily accessible it is. They also tend to forget
what they have disclosed in the past.
People are aware that by transacting digitally—for example, buying
things with credit cards, using store loyalty cards, or entering
information for online purchases—they are giving personal
information to the companies they are interacting with. But they
don’t realize that data is increasingly being aggregated, organized,
and passed on to advertising networks and independent
applications.
Therefore...
...always explain to people why personal data is needed, and how
it will be used. Loyalty is based on trust, and trust is dependent on
transparent interactions.
...give people the option to remove data that has been previously
recorded.

37. IDENTITY
Design for either personal or social identity.
Build on existing community behavior and norms.
Design new experiences to fit with pre-existing beliefs.
Give people privacy controls in context.
Explain why personal data is needed, how it wi! be used.

38. CONNECTEDNESS

39. A! the people we’re connected to,
a! the people they are connected to,
a! the people they are connected to...
and how we feel about the people
we’re connected to...

40. Our social network is hard
to visualize.
Therefore give su(estions for who to
communicate with.
Our network is all the people we are connected to, and all the people
they are connected to.
We are born into a network: our parents, our family, their friends.
As we grow older, we develop our own network, which slowly changes
throughout our lives. We become closer to some people, we lose touch
with others.
People we are indirectly connected to, for example our friends’ friends,
can influence the decisions we make.
People find it very hard to visualize their network. It is hard to
remember who they are connected to, and impossible to know who
their connections are connected to.
Therefore...
...don’t rely on people being able to remember who they should share
with, or assume that people have a map of their network. Give
suggestions for who to connect with around different pieces of
content. These suggestions can be specific people to connect with, or
can be broader and mapped to the products target users.
...don’t assume that it is possible to understand how content spreads
by looking at first degree connections. The hidden network of second
and third degree connections is often what drives distribution.
6 friends like this
2 friends listened to this
Matt Brown is going

41. Who we are connected to is
limited by homophily.
Therefore show people things they have
in common with others.
People associate with people like themselves. This is known as
homophily and is one of the most established patterns of social
science. Homophily limits who we are connected to.
Different dimensions separate us from others: geography, race,
income, education, religion, personal interests, our access to
technology, and so on.
When people are distant in multiple dimensions, they perceive each
other as far apart even though they may be connected. If people
perceive each other as far apart, they are unlikely to share things.
Therefore...
...if you want people to share content to people they are not very close
to, it is important to surface what people have in common in order to
reduce the perceived distance between them. This can include
common interests or people they both know.
Friend requests
Adam Benjamin
4 mutual friends
You both like Arsenal
Adnan Khan
CJ Hudson and 2 other mutual friends
You both like surfing and 4 other things
You and Michael Lage
Things you both like
12 mutual friends2 life events

42. We have evolved to form groups.
Therefore help people create and
strengthen groups.
Groups helped our ancestors stay safe from their predators, and
helped communities survive through the toughest of conditions.
Needing to belong to groups is hard-wired into all of us. Many
research studies have shown that:
We have a tendency to form groups, some of which are based on very
arbitrary characteristics.
People will make considerable sacrifices for the benefit of their group.
In certain situations, groups think better than individuals.
Therefore...
...thinking about how groups are structured is as important as thinking
about individuals. People are highly motivated to act when it is in the
best interests of a group they belong to.
...opportunities exist for helping people form new groups and
communities, especially when they have things in common.
College friends
Write something...
Friends using Nike+
4 runs 12 runs 7 runs
Write something...

43. We build relationships through
many lightweight interactions
over time.
Therefore support lightweight ways
for people to interact.
People build relationships with others slowly, one interaction at a
time. We often first meet others through a friend of a friend. It may be
multiple meetings through mutual friends before we chat to a new
person in-depth, or agree to meet up on our own.
It takes months and years to build relationships with people, and they
all are built on many lightweight interactions over time. All this
interaction used to be face to face, but now these lightweight
interactions happen across multiple communication technologies.
Much of our communication with the people closest to us is lightweight
interactions over time. We have quick phone calls, we send text
messages, we use instant messaging, we like and comment on each
others content.
Therefore...
...support lightweight ways for people to interact and show the
aggregations of those lightweight interactions over time.
e..g. Like, Comment, Share, Message, Give Gi$, Post.

44. We have stronger ties with some
people and weaker ties with others.
Therefore show more information about
the people closest to us. Highlight things in
common with those we don’t know so we!.
Strong ties are our closest friends and family. They are the people we
trust the most, the people we turn to for emotional support. Most
people have fewer than ten strong ties, and many have fewer than five.
The majority of communication is with these people as they are most
likely to reciprocate attention.
Weak ties are often friends of friends, or people we met recently. We
communicate with most of our weak ties infrequently. Online social
networks are making it easier to feel connected to many of our weak
ties because we can more easily follow what is happening in their
lives. Our weak ties are at the periphery of our social network, which
means they are connected to more diverse information than our strong
ties. Often new information comes to us from weak ties but we often
know less about their knowledge, and whether to trust their judgment.
Therefore...
...build experiences around strong ties by showing more information
about a small number of close friends rather than less information
about a greater number of people they don’t know as well
...when designing experiences, consider that although people’s weak
ties may be more knowledgeable than their strong ties, they may trust
them less, so it is important to maximize the amount of trust and
familiarity between people.
Recent purchases
Adam Benjamin
Bought Levi 511 commuter
Bought Lacoste Polo black
Adnan Khan
Bought Nautica dress shirt
Bought Kenneth Cole short sleeve
See all recent purchases from friends
Paul Adams, Blaise de Persia and 11 others like this.
Paul Adams and 2 others are mutual friends.
Studied biochemistry. Worked at Kaiser Medical.
Has advised 3 friends and 136 others.
You and Adam both responded on 3 questions.
Adam Benjamin

45. CONNECTEDNESS
Give su(estions for who to communicate with.
Show people things they have in common with others.
Help people create and strengthen groups.
Support lightweight ways for people to interact.
Design for specific relationship types.

46. COMMUNICATION

47. Why we talk to people, who we talk
to, and what we talk about.

48. We talk to survive, to build social
bonds, and to help others.
Therefore design experiences that
help people get through life by
building relationships.
Communication was an effective survival mechanism for our
ancestors, who shared information about food supplies, dangerous
animals, and weather patterns. It continues to help us understand
our world, including what behavior is appropriate and how to act in
certain situations. People talk because sharing information makes
life easier.
People talk to form and grow social bonds. Conversations ensure
that we understand one another. Talking to someone sends out
strong social signals. It shows people that we consider them
important enough to spend time together. People often like or
comment on an update to build a relationship, independent of the
content in the update. In many cases, the conversation that follows
a status update is much more important than the status update
itself.
Many people talk to help others. This is an altruistic act with no
expected reciprocity. For many, it is important to them to be
perceived as helpful, and so they try to share content that they
think other people will find valuable.
Therefore...
...design experiences that help people build relationships.
To support their Olympics 2012 TV campaign around celebrating athletes’
mothers, P&G built a lightweight app on Facebook that enabled people to
take a moment and thank their mothers - a simple meaningful gesture.

49. Most of our communication is
with the people closest to us.
Therefore optimize for
communication between people who
know each other.
We talk to the same, small group of people again and again. People
have consistent communication with between 7 and 15 people, but
that 80% of our conversations are with our five to ten strongest
ties.
The more people see each other in person or talk on the phone, the
more they communicate online.
Approximately half of our conversations that mention brands are
with a partner or family member and of these, about 70% happen
face to face.
Therefore...
...optimize for communication between strong ties as it is easier to
support an existing behavior than it is to create a new one. No
experience you design is likely to have a dramatic effect on who
people are talking to.
Communication patterns map to our network structure.

50. A large number of our
conversations are about others.
Therefore make it easy for people to
talk about others.
A large number of our conversations are gossiping about who is
doing what with whom. Only 5% is criticism or negative gossip
however. The vast majority of these conversations are positive, as
we are driven to preserve a positive reputation.
Of the conversations about social relationships, about half are about
people not present.
Conversations about other people and their behavior help us
understand what is socially acceptable in different situations by
revealing how the people we’re talking to react to the behavior of
the person not present.
Understanding how others have acted, as well as how the people
we care about and trust react to those actions, shapes our behavior.
It shapes what ideas we agree with, and how we may behave in the
future.
Therefore...
...design experiences that help people talk about others, whether
they are present or not. Help them understand what others are
doing, and with whom, by surfacing this content where appropriate.
Seeing "iends’ latest content helps us talk about them.

51. A large number of our
conversations are recounting
personal experiences.
Therefore building experiences that
a!ow people to talk to others about
memories is very powerful.
People often talk to others about previous experiences - what they
did, where they went, who they were with, their memories of those
experiences. We talk about things that happened recently, all the
way back to memories from childhood.
Our recollection of past experiences is very inaccurate. Our brain
isn’t hard wired to remember details. It only remembers the
relationships between things. When it recalls a memory, it fills in the
gaps in detail with fiction. This is subconscious, so people don’t
know which details are inaccurate. In fact, the more we remember
something, the more inaccurate it gets, as each time, more new
fictional details are added.
Therefore...
...building experiences that allow people to talk to others about
memories is very powerful.
... there are many opportunities to help people remember past
experiences more accurately.

52. We talk about feelings
more than facts.
Therefore create content that arouses
emotion rather than reason.
People share content that triggers the most arousing emotions. This
includes positive emotions such as awe, and negative emotions
such as anger and anxiety. Emotions that are not arousing, for
example sadness, do not trigger sharing of content.
Content that is positive, informative, surprising, or interesting is
shared more often than content that is not, and content that is
prominently featured is shared more often than content that is not,
but these factors are minor compared to how arousing the content
is.
Content that is non-arousing, for example, content that makes
people feel comfortable and relaxed, is unlikely to be shared.
Therefore...
...create content that arouses emotion rather than reason. Resist
the temptation to fill experiences with factual data about people,
companies or brands.
1. Sate!ite photos of Japan tsunami, before and a$er.
2. What teachers rea!y want to te! parents.
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed.
4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps.
5. Father daughter dance medley (video).
6.At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL.
7. You’! "eak when you see the new Facebook.
2011 MOST SHARED ITEMS ON FACEBOOK

53. COMMUNICATION
Design experiences that help build relationships.
Optimize for communication between people who know
each other.
Make it easy for people to talk about others.
Build experiences that a!ow people to reminisce.
Create content that arouses emotion rather than reason.

54. BACKGROUND
People live in networks.
Design systems, not destinations.
This is just Design, not Social Design.
IDENTITY
Design for either personal or social identity.
Influence social norms by building on existing
community behavior.
Design new experiences to fit with
pre-existing beliefs.
Give people privacy controls in context with
other actions.
Explain why personal data is needed, how
it wi! be used.
CONNECTEDNESS
Give su(estions for who to communicate with.
Show people things they have in common
with others.
Help people create and strengthen groups.
Support lightweight ways for people to interact.
Design for specific relationship types.
COMMUNICATION
Design experiences that help build relationships.
Optimize for communication between people who
know each other.
Make it easy for people to talk about others.
Build experiences that a!ow people to reminisce
Create content that arouses emotion rather
than reason.

55. Lots more details
and further design
patterns in my book...

56. THANKYOU!
@PADDAY PAUL ADAMS
UX LONDON APRIL 2013