Comments on: Designing for the Social Web: Signs of Life

By: The Product Guy’s Weekend Reading (May 30, 2008) « The Product Guy

The Product Guy’s Weekend Reading (May 30, 2008) « The Product Guy — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:08:44 +0000

[...] Design & Product Experience…http://bokardo.com/archives/designing-for-the-social-web-signs-of-life/For a solid User eXperience to exist there must be trust; you must demonstrate credibility. Joshua [...]

By: Zephyr

Zephyr — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:08:19 +0000

Thanks Josh. I realized later what it was that made me skeptical: it looks exactly like a persona summary sheet! *Based* on actual users (if done well), but not actual users

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:31:55 +0000

@Zephyr: Yes, it’s possible that these people are made up. I’m betting they’re not, though. I’ll ask the folks at Freshbooks to find out.

By: Zephyr

Zephyr — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:07:35 +0000

Call me cynical, but this could still be just cleverly *designed* testimonials, not actual people, just the designers knowing how to appeal to this site’s particular user group, who may be averse to seeing photos etc that are too obviously models posing for stock photos. I used to think these things didn’t affect me until I realized that maybe it was just the imagery I wasn’t relating to. But if they managed to *choose* the portrait photos that work for me, would I know the difference? They do a great job of showing a variety of user types and having them sound like actual people, but how do I know these people actually visit this site, could be contacted even? How do I know they are “signs of life”, not “signs of design”?

By: JC Cameron

JC Cameron — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:34:58 +0000

Great post, Josh. Clearly, we all place great value in the social behavior of others. You touched on two critical aspects that our new startup, VendorCity, is addressing…the value we place on the recommendations of others and the fact that the web has too much data but does not contain the data that best helps you make a good decision.

In a nutshell, VendorCity allows companies to gravitate towards and use the best and most highly recommended vendors in their area. All based upon the concept of ‘crowdsourcing’ where we can all benefit from the knowledge and input of others.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:23:00 +0000

@Todd – great to hear! Yes…even admissions home pages can benefit from signs of life…I bet most web sites can.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:49:29 +0000

@Sarah – eww…revolution health does have way to many stock photos…it’s just not authentic.

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:08:31 +0000

Thanks for your insight Joshua. I’m in the middle of a redesign of an Admissions site for a university, and even though I want it to harness the power of the new Web, I fall back on the old ways of “brochure on the Web” – it’s post like yours that get me back on the proper path. A “Class of 2013″ section on the home page would be a neat way of showing signs of life…

By: Niels

Niels — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:57:08 +0000

Hi Josh,

I guess we people like it if we see what others are doing. It gives us a sense of trust, and by showing more and more details of the other users that trust becomes bigger; the ‘virtual’ person comes to live.

Good post.

By: Designing for the Social Web: Signs of Life

Designing for the Social Web: Signs of Life — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:34:53 +0000

[...] Go to the author’s original blog: Designing for the Social Web: Signs of Life [...]

By: David

David — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:06:22 +0000

Hey Joshua,

it was great to read your article. In my country there are not enough posts like yours.

I tried to unterstand your post and I used such a structure for a landingpage. Hopefully this will result in sucess! Thanks for the advice.

Btw.: You have a good sense of style in writing professional and comprehensible articles.

Keep up the good work!

By: Sarah Cooper

Sarah Cooper — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:56:32 +0000

This is a great analogy. I think this is why so many Web 2.0 sites / online communities always have a “Newest Members” section on their front page. The design of the Freshbooks members section is better though, than just the usual grid of faces – it communicates both that there are members here and that they are actually *doing things* on the site, which goes a step further in adding to its signs of life.

Regarding your reference to stock photography – I totally agree. I believe stock photography is single-handedly killing RevolutionHealth, which is a beautifully designed site with great community potential, but if you look at any of the their content pages, the stock photos make it feel stale and lifeless.

By: Graham Strong

Graham Strong — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:38:59 +0000

Hi Joshua,

That’s a great point. But are there other ways of showing signs of life in this Web 2.0 world? I’m thinking of the iGoogle page, for example, that changes its graphic depending on the time of day.

Perhaps you *can* design a row of windows on a website and seat some cyber-customers next to them. Or show a line-up for your services. Or some other apt visual metaphor that shows how busy the owners behind the website are…

~Graham