Designing Social Interfaces, 2nd Edition

Designing Social Interfaces, 2nd Edition

by Christian Crumlish, Erin Malone
Released August 2015
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491919804

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Book description

Designers, developers, and entrepreneurs today must grapple with creating social interfaces to foster user interaction and community, but grasping the nuances and the building blocks of the digital social experience is much harder than it appears. Now you have help.

In the second edition of this practical guide, UX design experts Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone share hard-won insights into what works, what doesn’t, and why. With more than 100 patterns, design principles, and best practices, you’ll learn how to balance opposing forces and grow healthy online communities by co-creating the experience with your users.

  • Understand the overarching principles before applying tactical design patterns
  • Cultivate healthy participation and rein in misbehaving users
  • Learn patterns for adding social components to an existing site
  • Encourage users to interact with one another, whether it’s one-to-one or many-to-many
  • Use a rating system to build a social experience around products or services
  • Orchestrate collaborative groups and discover the real power of social networks
  • Explore numerous examples of each pattern, with an emphasis on mobile apps
  • Learn how to apply social design patterns to enterprise environments

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Table of contents

  1. Praise
  2. Preface
    1. Why We Updated This Book
    2. What This Book Is About
    3. The Visual Examples
    4. How This Book Is Organized
    5. Part I: What Are Social Patterns?
    6. Part II: I Am Somebody
    7. Part III: The Objects of Our Desire
    8. Part IV: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    9. Part V: Closed and Open Social Networks
    10. Sidebar Essays
    11. Who Should Read This Book
    12. Using the Interaction Patterns
    13. What Comes with This Book
    14. How to Contact Us
    15. Safari® Books Online
    16. Acknowledgments
      1. For the First Edition
      2. For the Second Edition
        1. From Christian
        2. From Erin
        3. To our essayists
        4. To our new essayists—welcome to the family
        5. To our reviewers
  3. I. What Are Social Patterns?
    1. 1. Mommy, What’s a Social User Experience Pattern?
      1. A Little Social Backstory...
        1. Well, What About That Social Media? Can You Expand on That?
      2. What Do We Mean by Principle, Best Practice, and Patterns?
        1. Principle: A Basic Truth, Law, or Assumption
        2. Practice (or Best Practice): A Habitual or Customary Action or Way of Doing Something
        3. Pattern: A Model or Original Used as an Archetype
        4. The Importance of Anti-Patterns
        5. Desktop, Mobile, Enterprise, or Devices
      3. So, That’s All the Little Parts: Now What?
      4. Further Reading
    2. 2. Social to the Core
      1. Social but Not Social Only
      2. Deliberately Leave Things Incomplete
        1. Pave the Cowpaths
        2. Strict Versus Fluid Taxonomies
      3. Palimpsest
      4. Talk Like a Person!
        1. Conversation
          1. What
          2. Use when
          3. How
          4. Special cases
          5. Why
          6. Examples
        2. Self-Deprecating Error Message
          1. What
          2. Use when
          3. How
          4. Special cases
          5. Examples
        3. Ask Questions
          1. What
          2. Use when
          3. How
          4. Why
          5. Examples
        4. No Joking Around
          1. What
          2. Use when
          3. How
          4. Special cases
          5. Why
      5. Don’t Break Email!
      6. Be Open
      7. Learn from Games
      8. Cargo Cult Anti-Pattern
      9. Haight-Ashbury Anti-Pattern
      10. Lord of the Flies Anti-Pattern
      11. Respect the Ethical Dimension
      12. Further Reading
  4. II. I Am Somebody
    1. 3. You’re Invited!
      1. Engagement
      2. Sign-Up or Registration
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
        5. Accessibility
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Sign In
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
        5. Accessibility
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      4. Two-Factor Authentication
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. PIN
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Fingerprint/Bio
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      7. Sign-In Continuity
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
        5. Special cases
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Sign Out
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      9. Invitations
      10. Receive Invitation
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      11. Send Invitation
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Special cases
        5. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      12. The Password Anti-Pattern
      13. Authorize
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Site A
          2. Site B
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      14. Private Beta
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
        5. Special cases
          1. As seen on
      15. Welcome Area
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      16. Reengagement
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
      17. Further Reading
    2. 4. Where’s the Rest of Me?
      1. Identity
      2. Profile
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Core profile
        4. Profile preferences and updating
        5. Private information
        6. Profile decorating
        7. Profile claiming
        8. Faceted identity
          1. Recommendations
          2. Considerations
          3. Open questions
        9. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Testimonials (or Personal Recommendations)
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      4. Personal Dashboard
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Reflectors
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Editing the display name
          2. Editing the display image
          3. Why
          4. Related patterns
          5. As seen on
      6. Identity Cards or Contact Cards
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As Seen On
      7. Attribution
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. For the content consumer
          2. For the content creator
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Avatars
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Default image
          2. Multiple avatars
          3. Mood expressions
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      9. Portable Identity
      10. Further Reading
    3. 5. Here We Are Now
      1. A Brief History of Online Presence
      2. The Future of Presence
        1. Presence Actions and Facets
        2. Availability
        3. What
        4. Use when
        5. How
          1. Stealth Mode
        6. Why
          1. Environment
      3. Buddy List
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Examples
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      4. Activity Streams
      5. Statuscasting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
      6. Managing Incoming Updates
        1. Keep Company
        2. Signs of Life
        3. User Gallery
      7. Further Reading
    4. 6. Would You Buy a Used Car from This Person?
      1. Reputation Influences Behavior
      2. Competitive Spectrum
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
      3. Levels
      4. Named Levels
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Recommendations
        5. Considerations
          1. Related pattern
          2. As seen on
      5. Numbered Levels
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Considerations
          3. Exclusivity
          4. As seen on
      6. Labels
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      7. Awards
      8. Collectible Achievements
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Exclusivity
          3. Temporality
          4. Related pattern
          5. As seen on
      9. Peer-to-Peer Awards
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Considerations
          3. Related patterns
          4. As seen on
      10. Rankings
      11. Points
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Examples
          3. As seen on
      12. Leaderboard
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. As seen on
      13. Top X
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Exclusivity
          2. As seen on
      14. Tools for Monitoring Reputation
      15. Friend Ranking
      16. For the Win
        1. Social Games
          1. Considerations
      17. Further Reading
  5. III. Objects of My Desire
    1. 7. Hunters Gather
      1. Collecting
      2. Saving
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Considerations
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      3. Favorites
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      4. Displaying
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Add/Subscribe
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Tagging
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      7. Find with Tags
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
          2. Why
          3. Related patterns
          4. As seen on
      8. Tag Cloud
        1. What
        2. Use When
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      9. Further Reading
    2. 8. Share and Share Alike
      1. Tools to Enable Organic “Word of Mouth”
      2. Send/Share Icon
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Internationalization
          2. Known issues
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Bookmarklet
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
        5. Activity Streams
      4. Private Sharing
      5. Send This
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Special cases
        5. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Casual Privacy
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. Sources
          3. As seen on
      7. Ephemeral Sharing
      8. Give Gift
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Special cases
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      9. Public Sharing
        1. Many Publics
      10. Share This
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
        5. Live Real-Time Sharing
      11. Reposting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      12. Social Bookmarking
      13. Uploading to the Cloud
      14. Embedding
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      15. Passive Sharing
      16. Further Reading
    3. 9. The Global Soapbox
      1. Broadcasting
      2. Blogging
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Posts
        5. Presentation of posts
        6. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Podcasting
      4. Video blogging
      5. Microblogging
      6. Publishing
        1. Cross-posting
      7. Virtual Magazine
      8. Timestamp
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Freshness
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      9. Rights
      10. Terms of Service
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Internationalization
        4. Why
          1. Sources
          2. As seen on
      11. Licenses
        1. Public Domain
          1. Sources
        2. Creative Commons
          1. Creative Commons licenses
          2. Sources
        3. Copyleft
          1. Sources
        4. Copyright
          1. Sources
      12. Further Reading
    4. 10. Long-Time Listener, First-Time Caller
      1. Soliciting Feedback
        1. General Considerations
      2. Vote to Promote
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Special considerations
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      3. Thumbs Up/Down Ratings
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Recommendations
        4. Considerations
          1. Vote counts: Why not percentages?
        5. International considerations
        6. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      4. Ratings (Stars or 1–5)
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Considerations
        4. Why
          1. Accessibility
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      5. Multifaceted Ratings
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Comments
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Considerations
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      7. Reviews
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Considerations
          2. Accessibility
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Soliciting Feedback
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Considerations
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      9. Further Reading
    5. 11. Watson, Come Quick!
      1. Synchronous versus Asynchronous Communication
      2. Sign In to Participate
      3. Meta-conversation
        1. What
        2. Use When
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As Seen On
          2. Contributed by
      4. Forum
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Moderation
        5. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Public Conversation
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Private Conversation
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Nudging
          2. Backchannel
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      7. Group Conversation
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Private group conversations
          2. Public group conversations
          3. Related patterns
          4. As seen on
      8. Arguments
        1. Flame Wars
        2. Vendettas
        3. Sock Puppets
      9. Response Notifications
      10. Further Reading
  6. IV. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
    1. 12. Barnraising
      1. Collaboration
      2. Manage Project
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Voting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      4. Collaborative Editing
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Suggestions
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      6. Edit This Page
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Special cases
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      7. The Wiki Way
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Crowdsourcing
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      9. Further Reading
    2. 13. Heard It Through the Grapevine
      1. Keeping Up
      2. Tuning In
      3. Following
        1. What
          1. Related patterns
      4. Filtering
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      5. Recommendations
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Social Search
      7. Real-Time Search
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Conversational Search
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      9. Pivoting
      10. Anticipatory Content
      11. Further Reading
    3. 14. One of Us, One of Us
      1. Relationships
      2. Find People
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Browsing for people
          2. Searching for connections
          3. Finding friends from email, IM buddy list/contacts, and other networks
          4. Discovery recommendations
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      3. Adding Friends
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Confirming friendship/two-way connections
          2. One-way following (aka asynchronous following)
          3. Implicit and explicit relationships
          4. Fans and fame (aka asynchronous following)
          5. Temporal connections
          6. Ignore me
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      4. Circles of Connections
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Publicize Relationships
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Unfriending
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Blocking
          1. Ostracizing
          2. Bozofilter
        5. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      7. The Ex-Boyfriend Anti-Pattern
      8. Groups
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Ridiculously easy group formation
          2. Create
          3. Finding groups
          4. Participation
          5. Administration
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      9. What’s Age Got to Do with It?
      10. Dating and the One-on-One Connection
      11. Flirting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      12. Cybersex/Sexting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      13. Further Reading
    4. 15. Good Cop, Bad Cop
      1. Community Management
        1. Norms
        2. Role Model
        3. Potemkin Village (Anti-Pattern)
      2. Collective Governance
      3. Group Moderation
      4. Collaborative Filtering
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      5. Report Abuse
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Report Abuse link
          2. Optional icon
          3. Abuse report form
          4. Confirmation
          5. Abuse tracking
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
          3. Sources
      6. Further Reading
    5. 16. Where in the World?
      1. The Local Connection
      2. Being Local
        1. What
        2. Use when
      3. Face-to-Face Meeting
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Pre-event creation
          2. Pre-event attendees
          3. Post-event attendees
        4. Public events
          1. Semipublic events
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      4. Party
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Preparty planning
          2. Invitees
          3. After party
          4. Why
          5. Related patterns
          6. As seen on
      5. Calendaring
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Selecting a specific date
          2. Calendar details
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      6. Reminding
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      7. Geo-Tagging
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      8. Geo-Mapping or Near Me Now
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
          1. Gatherings
        4. Why
          1. Considerations
          2. Related patterns
          3. As seen on
      9. Geo-Tracking or Where I’ve Been
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      10. Neighborhood
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
          2. As seen on
      11. Further Reading
  7. V. But Wait...There’s More!
    1. 17. Corporations Are People, My Friend
      1. Consumer Enterprise Experiences
      2. Workers are Mobile
      3. Single Sign-On
      4. The Corporate Identity and Profile
      5. Contacts and Relationships
      6. What Is the Social Object?
      7. What Are the Jobs to be Done?
      8. The Status/Activity Stream
      9. Communicating Without Email
      10. Administration and Moderation
      11. Other Tools
      12. Further Reading
    2. 18. Designing Around Openness
      1. Play Well with Others
        1. The Open Stack, the Social Stack
        2. Open Source
      2. Opening Out
        1. Badging
          1. What
          2. Use when
          3. How
          4. Why
          5. Related patterns
      3. Open Standards (Semantics and Microformats)
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. Related patterns
      4. Opening In
        1. Import
        2. What
        3. Use when
        4. How
        5. Why
      5. Hosted Modules
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
      6. Going Both Ways
      7. Open APIs
        1. What
        2. Use when
        3. How
        4. Why
          1. As seen on
      8. Further Reading
    3. 19. Epilogue
      1. And In the End...
  8. A. About the Authors
  9. B. O’REILLY®: Designing Social Interfaces
  10. Index
  11. About the Authors
  12. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Designing Social Interfaces, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Christian Crumlish, Erin Malone
  • Release date: August 2015
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491919804