dsp· by gregor hochmuth

The 3 Loops of Designing for Audience

In Audiences, Designing on 10 August 2008 with 18 comments

In the previous post Why Twitter hasn’t failed: The Power of Audience, I claim that Twitter has been so successful because it gives users a concrete model of who is listening to them — it gives them a sense of Audience.

Designing for this sense of Audience is a powerful tool to create cohesion and sense of utility among users of a service.

Twitter is a prime example for this kind of attachment: it survives countless outages and a slew of alternatives that could all pull users away… but don’t.

So how do you design for Audience? Read more →

Facebook: Designed for Audience? Not so much.

In Audiences on 10 August 2008 with 3 comments

Facebook isn’t about Audience? That’s ridiculous, you’ll say — so let me clarify. I fully agree that social network profiles are all about self-expression and being seen, but a platform for self-expression isn’t necessarily designed for the audience that does “the seeing.”

Facebook is designed for person-to-person and group communication. But is it designed for Audience? Read more →

Why Twitter hasn’t failed: The Power of Audience

In Audiences, Designing on 10 August 2008 with 4 comments

Twitter isn’t for everyone, and you may have dismissed the service a long time ago. But regardless of your own use, it’s hard to dismiss the phenomenon itself and the passion of so many that has built up around it.

No matter how long the outage du jour, Twitter users continue to stay attached to the service despite an ever-changing backdrop of alternatives.

Blogging isn’t for everyone either. But unlike blogging, Twitter enjoys a far a greater variety of users — they include people, many people, who would never think of starting a blog and people who would never touch an RSS reader. The 140 character limit is a plus for Twitter, but it isn’t all.

What explains the Twitter phenomenon then? What produces the positive feeling and the strong attachment among those who tweet? And moreover: How can other systems learn from this?

The answer lies in understanding Audience. Read more →