Discovery is the new cocaine

Discovery is the new cocaineGoing beyond engagement

By: Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio)

Note: Section on “Flow” was derived from “The Science Of Designing Interactions” (SXSW 2008)

by Andreas Weigend (people and data), and Ming Yeow Ng (Discoverio)

Why should you care about Discovery?

First off…

Source: WSJ, Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data March 12, 2008

What is it about a Web site that might make it literally irresistible?

• We are programmed for scarcity and can't dial back even when information is abundant

• … (addictive sites) all presented new information that somehow needed to be interpreted…

• this triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good…

From Wall Street Journal:

Done right, Discovery can make a website irresistible!

In other words….

Desire by humans to be a live node in the network

We are always…

“Constantly scanning the peripheral, always motivated by the desire not to miss opportunities”

“Desire for other people recognizing us, make us feel important.”

“Services that win are those that help us protect, filter, create meaningful connections ”

Linda Stone

What drives Discovery?

Source: Etech 2006

What is Discovery?

Allowing users to:

1. Discover new, valuable information

2. Get Discovered by others

3. Discovering more about themselves

Discovery of Information

New and Richly interpretable information triggers chemical

reactions

Facilitate user towards:

Twitter, Friendfeed: Constant stream of new information

New information

Facebook Breakups“Who was she?”“Was his girlfriend pretty??”“You mean she is gay???”

Richly Interpretable

Get Discovered by Others

“Who is paying attention to me?”“Am I being recognized?”

Helping users to:

MyBlogLogWho is checking me out?

Who is paying attention to me?

TwitterWho is following me?

Discover More About Themselves

“Who am I to others?”“What do I like?”

Allowing users to:

Key here: People do not know what they want!

Tickle: What am I?(400 million personality tests taken)

The Old Personality Test The New Personality Test

What am I to others?

Amazon :Collective Recommendation

What do I like?

Stylefeeder:Analyzing attributes

Facilitate the Discovery Cycle for your users

Taking all 3 types together:

Engage and allow contribution of information, leaving of footprints, and giving of feedback

2) System to generate new

insights for user

1) Discovery of Content and Users

3) Other Users to discover him

Data becomes basis for:

Personalized Recommendations

Interactions that lead to reciprocity and

interactions

User learning more about himself

The Discovery Cycle for Your App

Continuous Learning, Contributing, Recognition

Throughout the process:

(Keeps him coming back!)Meaningful connections gets established

“Intermittent Variable Reinforcement “• “One of Skinner's most important discoveries was that

behavior that is reinforced intermittently is much more

difficult to extinguish than behavior that is reinforced continuously.“ – via Kathy Sierra

• "You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or

how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle.“ - Patricia Wallace on slot machines

Done right, this leads to

Discovery is less about predicting precisely right about what the user

wants

It is more about the entire user flow of discovery, with all the hits and misses

In other words...

Think window shopping down the mall or walking through an expo hall

Discovering Activity by Social Graph

Based on live updates

My good friend

The guy with great events

The babe I check out

Based on collective behavior and attention data

Collective Judging Collective Behavior

No concept of individual Personalization

Crowdvine: Updated profiles, comments are on front page

Helping users get discovered Clear attention/intention data

Crowdvine: want-to-meet, fan

Apache Social Network: Open source projects worked on together

Connecting based on commonalities

Exploitation Exploration

Connecting based on mutual interest

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Flickr: Interestingness

Etsy: Many ways to shop

Randomness that shows the new and richly interpretable

Etsy: 10 different fun ways to discover!(boring categories are at the end)

Make it fun to explore

Understanding the elements of “flow”

Feedback, Rewards, Lightweight, Reducing uncertainty

How to create the right user experience?

Inspired by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

Direct and immediate feedback

Successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed

Elements of flow (1)

Feedback can be by system or can be by other users

Feedback for users to guide their future behavior

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Contribution to others

Achievements

Popularity

Metrics for:

Wrong-doings

Maslow Hierarchy

Yelp: popularity, achievement, and contribution

How am I doing?

Cash = powerValue = desirability

Points as indicators of power and desirability

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Linkedin Profile Completeness Pointing out “deficiencies” to induce actions

Setting expected “norm”

Rewards

Intrinsically RewardingClarity of Reward

Recognition for contribution

Elements of flow (2)

Twitter: Self Expression is its own reward

Intrinsically Rewarding

Twitter: Validation, and Social Interaction are powerful rewards by themselves

Intrinsically Rewarding

Clear recognition for intended actions

Digg: Made popular by…

Crowdvine: Updated profiles, comments

are on front page

Best Match: Invite 10 to see “best matches”

Making Rewards Clear and Explicit

GetSatisfaction: I have this question too!

Suggest action and clarify reward

Lightweight Interactions

Make it easy for users to contribute

Elements of Flow (3)

Crowdvine:Fan : expression of confidence

Want-to-meet: initiate relationship

Lightweight, In the moment expressions

Yelp: Variety of lightweight

interactions directly on reviews

Lijit: Made the process entertaining and a little mysterious, with rewards at each step

Make user do as little as possible

Signup Time 15m -> 2m

Conversion 0.1% -> 4%

Source: Lijit, SXSW 2008

Automated retrieval of external data, all user needs to do is confirm

Woot: One Single Action

Do not make users think

Reducing fear and uncertainty

Uncertainty, even irrelevant uncertainty kills action

Elements of Flow (4)

Twitter: Communicating with little fear of incurring cost to recipient

Assurance that it is up to recipients’ “mode of receiving”

Zoosk: Flirt vs risk

Reducing Personal Commitment

HotorNot: No risk of “rejection”

Surfacing Improbable Matches

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Crowdvine: Showing social behavior right on frontpage

Reducing uncertainty on “correct” behavior

Latest Comments

Day Trading

Elements of Addiction

MMORPG

1) Attractor: Things happening outside your control in the system, yet affecting your status

2) Motivator: You have a stake (self-esteem/emotional/financial) in changes happening to your status Source: "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction" Nick Yee

Systematically Introducing Discovery Into Your App (uncompleted)

1. Know what data points you need (Individual / Collective / External)

2. Know what mode of discovery (Recommendations / Search / Browsing)

3. Create pathways of discovery (Filtering / Anchoring )

4. Maximize exploration / exploitation within the pathway (Intention / Attention)

5. Providing reasons/context for discovery ( Context/Persona/Content)

6. Facilitating mediums for connections (Currency / Reputation)

7. Understand what metrics you need (Diversity, Virality, Engagement)

Process by Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio)

We LOVE Feedback!!!

• Discovery is a new, unexplored and very exciting area to be innovating in, and we love to hear from anyone who is just as excited about this as us!

• Touch base with us via any of these mechanisms– mingyeow@discoverio.com | @mingyeow (twitter)– yushan@discoverio.com | @ambivalence (twitter)