All posts in social-networking

Predicting Social Media Trends and Maybe More

Posted
November 9, 2012
Categories
information-society
social-networking
ubicomp

Recently an interesting story was published that brought to my attention the development of a method of predicting which topics will trend on twitter. The method, or algorithm, was developed at MIT and will be presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Information and Decision in Social Networks.

Being able to predict what will trend on twitter is useful for a variety of reasons. However, when we move away from social media, prediction will really have an impact on everyday life.

We live in the era of “Big Data” and interpreting this data, through the use of sophisticated quantitative models, will become more commonplace.Essentially, everyone will have a tool similar to Google Analytics for personal data. We’re mostly there today. For example, products such as FitBit or Nike+ monitor one’s vital signs and store that information for further analysis. Extending these products with a predictive component will lead to new preventative health care applications.

With all of these new tools, though, we cannot overlook the privacy question. The most cynical of voices will question whether privacy is relevant for users? Social media sites have trained people to share everything. Cloud based services are having a similar effect on documents. Will the addition of personal data have any impact on these trends?

Google Plus & The Dashboard

Posted
May 29, 2012
Categories
interaction-design
social-networking
ux

The latest build of Google Plus for Android was rolled out a few days ago. While there are many UI updates, one of the changes is significant. The dashboard design pattern, it seems, has been deprecated.

When you login into the current build of Google plus you land on the “What’s Hot” view. This view is housed within the stream section of the app. To switch to another section of the app, say, circles, you must tap on the up button of the action bar, which reveals a menu. The menu enters the screen from left hand side and presents a navigation list.

Take a look:

This fly out navigation menu is a pattern that is used quite often for iOS social apps. For example, Path, Pinterest and Twitter’s iPad app all leverage this pattern. Facebook also uses this pattern for their mobile website and, iOS & Android apps. The fact that Google+ is now using this pattern means the fly out navigation menu will be viewed, initially, as a social app interaction pattern on mobile.

It would be great to see this pattern incorporated into UI guidelines. Doing so would help develop a consistent experience approach across apps, which would be good for users. As for current social apps for Android, we’ll see how soon this pattern will be incorporated. Given Android’s rendering philosophy, the development effort required to build this custom component may delay roll out of the fly out menu, but we’ll see.

We’ll also see what the fate of the dashboard will be. Take a look at the Dashboard that is no longer being used:

Google Plus Dashboard

From a hierarchy perspective, I’m a fan of the dashboard. The functional decomposition the dashboard pattern encourages designers to use is a neat way to silo and optimize tasks. The dashboard replicates the launcher environment, which establishes a level of consistency with the mobile operating system. This view gives one a high level snapshot of the main features/sections of an app.  It works well, but maybe not in all cases.

In a social networking context, optimizing tasks may not be the top priority. If you’re trying to push timely content, for example, the dashboard it is an extra and excessive. So, it makes sense to drop the dashboard pattern from social apps. I hope it remains a viable option for utility apps though.

Diaspora – Alpha Release

Posted
November 14, 2011
Categories
social-networking

I’m sad to report that the alpha release of the newish social networking site Diaspora is a little uninspiring. Given it’s in alpha state, I’ll not comment on the performance of the site.

The look & feel of the site, though, look terribly reminiscent of…oh… I don’t know… Google+. I was expecting something different, and I’m getting more of the same social networking (do I really need another stream?). Also, I’m not fond of a buggy website being snarky (take a look at the following error message I got):

 

Diaspora 404 PageUpdate: To make matters worse, one of Diaspora’s founders has just passed away.

Diaspora Home Page

 

 

Immersed in Google+

Posted
July 3, 2011
Categories
projects
social-networking
ux

My goal for the next 2 weeks will be, for social networking purposes, to primarily use Google+. I deactivated my Facebook account a few moments ago, I barely use twitter,  and the other social networking sites I have long since abandoned.

I installed Google+ on my phone and I’m pretty much set to go.The goal will be to immerse myself in all things Google+ in order to get a better understanding of how efective the network is in terms of user experience. My initial impressions have been mostly positive:

  • The concept of circles, while not perfect, is a good strep int he right direction.
  • Adding disclaimers to raise the awareness about the impact of posting is great
  • The visual design has been done well
  • The mega-menu’s are more readable than those found on Facebook
  • The integration of Google services into this platform has worked fine for me so far
  • Seamless integration with Android
  • Simple Photography Workflow – edit images with Picasa, upload to Picasa Web, which also uploads to Google+

That’s it for now, but I can tell you at this early stage (I’ve been using Google+ since the 29th – it launched on the 28th) I enjoy using it. Rather than merely posting something to the ether of the web, I find myself thinking more about who my audience and how to best reach said audience.

Checkout the blogpost announcing Google Plus.

Rock On Google.