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Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software

Posted by TimSlavin at November 14, 2004

"When we hear the word "software," most of us think of things like Word, Powerpoint, or Photoshop, tools for individual users. These tools treat the computer as a box, a self-contained environment in which the user does things. Much of the current literature and practice of software design—feature requirements, UI design, usability testing—targets the individual user, functioning in isolation.

And yet, when we poll users about what they actually do with their computers, some form of social interaction always tops the list—conversation, collaboration, playing games, and so on. The practice of software design is shot through with computer-as-box assumptions, while our actual behavior is closer to computer-as-door, treating the device as an entrance to a social space.

We have grown quite adept at designing interfaces and interactions between computers and machines, but our social tools—the software the users actually use most often—remain badly misfit to their task. Social interactions are far more complex and unpredictable than human/computer interaction, and that unpredictability defeats classic user-centric design. As a result, tools used daily by tens of millions are either ignored as design challenges, or treated as if the only possible site of improvement is the user-to-tool interface."

This must be deep thinking week. This essay by Clay Shirky has some excellent ideas and insights into weblogs, wikis, email newsletters, and other social software.
URLs:

http://shirky.com/writings/group_user.html

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