The User Experience of Social Media

Jen Romano Bergstrom November 2012 Guest lecture at Howard University

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What is Usability?

“the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” ISO 9241-11

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Usability vs. User Experience (UX)?

The 5 Es to Understanding Users (W. Quesenbery): http://www.wqusability.com/articles/getting-started.html User Experience Design (P. Morville): http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

Whitney’s 5 Es of Usability Peter’s User Experience Honeycomb

4 Krug, S. Don’t Make Me Think

What People do on the Web

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Mental models and repeating behaviors

x  

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Mental models and repeating behaviors

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Measuring the UX

•  How does it work for the end user?

•  What does the user expect?

•  How does it make the user feel?

“the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” ISO 9241-11 + emotions

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What to measure

OBSERVATIONAL +  Ethnography

+  Time to complete task +  Reaction time

+  Selection/click behavior +  Ability to complete tasks

+  Accuracy

IMPLICIT +  Facial expression analysis

+  Eye tracking +  Electrodermal activity (EDA)

+  Behavioral analysis +  Linguistic analysis of verbalizations

+  Implicit associations +  Pupil dilation

EXPLICIT +  Post-task satisfaction

questionnaires +  In-session difficulty ratings

+  Verbal responses +  Moderator follow up +  Real-time +/- dial

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Social Media “Internet communications where more than one user can publish/post information within a community of users” •  Allows for many different organization and/or user goals to exist •  Does not assume specific goals, such as building relationships or

demonstrating authenticity •  The first portion of the definition, “Internet communications where more

than one user,” focuses on the concept of interaction, which can vary in intensity from consumer to creator to exchanger.

•  The second portion, “publish/post information within a community of users,” implies that there is a public or semi-public (depending on security settings) aspect of social media.

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UX of Social Media “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” ISO 9241-11 + emotions

•  What do users come to social media for?

•  How is this different from traditional websites?

•  How does it work for the end user?

•  What does the user expect?

•  How does it make the user feel?

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Burridge, L. (forthcoming). The User Experience of Social Media. In Romano Bergstrom, J. & Schall, A. (Eds). Eye Tracking in User Experience Design.

Social Media •  By 2012, Facebook had 1 billion members worldwide, and

social media sites were making a big impact socially, politically and economically across the world.

•  High levels of emotional engagement •  User behavior is different from websites •  Design constraints

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Social Media •  Peer to peer marketing –  Social buttons to users can share

•  Saturate social media to avoid negative comments overtaking presence –  Respond quickly

•  Post emotional things –  Make people laugh, cry, etc.

•  Goal is not to make sales –  Build brand awareness –  Capture attention –  Publish interesting content

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Luchman, J., Romano Bergstrom, J. & Krulikowski, C. (under review). A Motives Framework of Social Media Website Use: A Survey of Young Americans.

Social Media Framework I •  Problems: Other frameworks were based on the intent of

the site, not on the end user’s perspective •  Methods: Focus groups, background research, survey

(1,686) to youth from prior survey How often do you use [SM site] to _____ ?

5-point Likert-type scale: None (i.e., I only read anonymously) to A Great Deal (i.e., I share most information about myself). •  Find out more about something or

someone •  Find places to eat or services to use •  Get better at doing something •  Have fun

•  Laugh •  Post about fun things you are doing •  See/hear something entertaining •  Give updates about major events in

your life •  Give updates throughout the day •  Share ideas/information with peers to

advance a topic •  Teach others about something you

have learned •  Work together toward a shared goal.

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Luchman, J., Romano Bergstrom, J. & Krulikowski, C. (under review). A Motives Framework of Social Media Website Use: A Survey of Young Americans.

Social Media Framework II The following SM sites or SM clusters were evaluated: •  Blogs •  Discussion Boards/Forums •  Facebook •  Flickr •  Foursquare •  Google Places •  Google+ •  Instagram •  LinkedIn •  Myspace •  Pinterest •  Social News Sites (e.g., Reddit, Digg, etc.) •  Second Life

•  Second Life •  Tumblr •  Twitter •  Wikipedia •  Massively Multiplayer Online Role

Playing Games (MMORPGs; e.g., World of Warcraft, RuneScape, etc.)

•  Social Rater Sites (e.g., Yelp, Rate My Professors, etc.)

•  YouTube

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Social Media Framework: Users’ expectations

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The UX of Facebook •  How can businesses engage users on Facebook?

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The UX of Facebook: Coca Cola

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The UX of Facebook

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The UX of Facebook

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The UX of Facebook

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The UX of Facebook

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Ads on Facebook: users’ mental model

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Ads on Facebook: users’ mental model

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http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/11885/do-tweets-with-hashtags-quotes-and-images-get-more-retweets

The UX of Twitter •  Analytics data •  Links in tweets get more clicks when in the middle or

beginning of tweets •  Ask people to do things –  “Please ReTweet” > “Please RT” > none –  Leave room for people to RT

•  Respond to negative tweets •  Other social media now have Twitter-like functionality

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http://danzarrella.com/new-data-tweets-between-100-and-115-characters-are-more-likely-to-be-retweeted.html?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blog-emails&utm_content=10607388&_hsmi=10607388&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_fXBW8t0TlwBcrKYxFUja-D-ugZA1eS3BFjZr3MP86BaOYytWQO3c1VEZnEJEbrqW2e8d9ByrcAP4ds9pO-eWbNXDw4g#

Twitter UX: Tweet length

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Better UX means… •  Higher user satisfaction –  Repeat visits –  Recommendations to others –  Increased engagement

•  User-centered design –  From the end users’ perspective

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Harnessing the UX of Social Media •  Cross post –  Write a blog post –  Tweet about it (and link) –  Post to Facebook (and link) –  Read the press release and post to YouTube

•  Peer to peer: Users will do the same

Thank you!

Jennifer Romano Bergstrom @romanocog

jbergstrom@forsmarshgroup.com