The WELL: inkwell.vue.368: Christian Crumlish, Designing Social Interfaces

#97: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Thu 12 Nov 09 22:11

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:11:00 PST

Thanks, <xian>, and everyone else who was part of the conversation! [Read entire topic]

#96: Christian Crumlish (xian) Thu 12 Nov 09 01:09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:09:00 PST

i had great fun, and may stick around a bit to sweep up loose ends, but i'll also be sure to check out Brian's Plato interview here in the Inkwell!

oh, and my blog's primary url is now http://mediajunkie.com/ (xianlandia.com redirects there, so no worries - it will take a while to tell the web i've moved: too many profiles out there with the old address)

...and it's a king bird of paradise! [Read entire topic]

#95: bill braasch (bbraasch) Wed 11 Nov 09 21:25

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:25:00 PST

yes, thanks for taking this on while jetting off to Japan.

a bad interface can totally change the nature of a relationship. thanks for mixing down the patterns for us. [Read entire topic]

#94: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Wed 11 Nov 09 20:45

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:45:00 PST

Thanks Xian! [Read entire topic]

#93: Gail Williams (gail) Wed 11 Nov 09 19:51

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:51:00 PST

Christian & Jon, thank you so much for spending 2 weeks with us in discussing this book. I want to recommend it to people with a strong interest in online social dynamics even if they are not designers. It illuminates a lot and raises a lot of good questions.

The next conversation has started right next door at http://tinyurl.com/369plato where Brian Dear is laying out the story of PLATO and other collaborative adventures, so we are continuing in the same vein, more or less. Of course you are welcome to stay and talk here for as long as you like, or to drop back by with pointers, links and comments at any time.

<xian>'s totally worthwhile blog is here: http://xianlandia.com/ and it has an wonderful picture of the cover of the book on it. Any <wildlife.> regulars know what the bird on the cover is? Gorgeous. [Read entire topic]

#92: Christian Crumlish (xian) Wed 11 Nov 09 16:10

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:10:00 PST

ok, sure but then there is no distinction between viewing one's own stuff vs. someone else's - so there can be a context problem, analogous to the one in, say, facebook where you can't always tell if you're looking at a profile view (of your own stuff) showing what other people see or a dashboard view showing you the things you're curating.

maybe this isn't a big deal, though?

(about to start my full-day workshop in tokyo...) [Read entire topic]

#91: Jef Poskanzer (jef) Wed 11 Nov 09 12:06

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:06:00 PST

I think both My and Your are incorrect choices. Just leave them off. Instead of "Your Photostream" vs. "My Photostream", just "Photostream" works fine. And as a bonus it's not obnoxious. [Read entire topic]

#90: Michael C. Berch (mcb) Wed 11 Nov 09 11:27

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:27:00 PST

With respect to "My" vs. "Your", I submit that "My" is sort of a special case, in that it has gained a specific meaning in the Web industry -- MySitename (where "Sitename" is the name of the site or service) is a link to a customizable portal for the site's services, with "dashboard"-like views of relevant services, status/state, or configuration information. To me, that usage is pretty much locked in now and overrides any other considerations of the you/us/we/me paradigm.

Not sure who was the first to use this (MyEbay?) but it's so common now that any attempt to do something different risks thoroughly confusing the user. [Read entire topic]

#89: Gail (gail) Wed 11 Nov 09 10:25

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:25:00 PST

So I think sites talk "like people" whether they want to or not.

Sometimes they talk like awkward, inconsistent or bossy people, unintentionally. Getting your site to talk like a person your users will respect and like in a variety of contests is the bottom line. (This is evident when you read the "talk like a person" pattern description in the book, of course.)

So far as impersonal or third person statements go, a real person may and often probably should say them, and still be "like a person."

"The bridge on River Road is out."

Or even with more implied personality, but still declarative:

"The bridge on River Road is, like, completely wiped out!"

as opposed to

"I have learned that the bridge on River Road is out" or "You need to know that the bridge on River Road is out."

All are like a person, but the third-person declarations seem less encumbered with the relationship of the speaker to the reader then the "you" or "I" formulations. Cleanly impersonal. When it's automated display of language, and the emotional context could be anything, the simple statement seems like a smarter choice to me. It's a matter of style, of course. Personality, even. [Read entire topic]

#88: Gai (gail) Wed 11 Nov 09 10:24

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:24:00 PST

For "impersonal phrasing," I'm thinking declarative statements, in the third-person. That's still something you can say "like a person," yourself, right?

For example, the "person" of the site says in an error message:

"We moved that page into it's final resting area."

What an odd person.

If you are a copyeditor or even if you just got that spelling/grammar message successfully hammered in, the "it's" makes the message jarring or uncouth. Can you respect that "person"?

If not, the "We" may seem most alarming or awkward, authoritarian or mysterious. (From the user's perspective, that "We" becomes a "They" with shady powers.)

Or perhaps neither of those choices rankle. (After all, it probably was literally a "they" - a team - that designed and developed the place you're using, and maybe you are spelling-oblivious). There's still the "final resting area." Misuse of an idiom - "final resting place" - by a non-native speaker? Weird choice for a designation that you could look up -- something actually called the Final Resting Area on that site? Hmm. Just what kind of person is this? [Read entire topic]