Design of Social Software
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
How do you design social software?
Do you interview users, draw uml diagrams and then create prototypes?
As the user of Social Software is the group and not the individual, How do you account for group interactions and group goals?
So far what I've read in forums is that someone has an idea, any idea... takes the risk and develops it. The software is thrown out to the market and people wait to see what happens. Somehow the software is successful, thousands of people are using it and are sending feedback to the creators. Here we have a decisive point in which the creators decide on the future of their yet successful software. If they want to continue in the market they have to listen to user feedback and alter the software to improve the most wanted features and fix or remove the least wanted. At the end, the software is being used by millions of people, it allows them to communicate as they wish and to create a social network that accounts for their goals as individuals and as a group.
Seems nice and easy, but yet.... this looks like an accident, a fluke, really good luck.
If I wanted to create a business application, something that allows people to work and interact... I would really want to use some ideas from social software. (For me social software is every software used by people.) The problem is that, as this is a relatively new field, there is very little on this yet. ... and I am still wondering about how to adapt software development practices so they take into account the social aspects of the business settings in which the software is going to be used?
Do you interview users, draw uml diagrams and then create prototypes?
As the user of Social Software is the group and not the individual, How do you account for group interactions and group goals?
So far what I've read in forums is that someone has an idea, any idea... takes the risk and develops it. The software is thrown out to the market and people wait to see what happens. Somehow the software is successful, thousands of people are using it and are sending feedback to the creators. Here we have a decisive point in which the creators decide on the future of their yet successful software. If they want to continue in the market they have to listen to user feedback and alter the software to improve the most wanted features and fix or remove the least wanted. At the end, the software is being used by millions of people, it allows them to communicate as they wish and to create a social network that accounts for their goals as individuals and as a group.
Seems nice and easy, but yet.... this looks like an accident, a fluke, really good luck.
If I wanted to create a business application, something that allows people to work and interact... I would really want to use some ideas from social software. (For me social software is every software used by people.) The problem is that, as this is a relatively new field, there is very little on this yet. ... and I am still wondering about how to adapt software development practices so they take into account the social aspects of the business settings in which the software is going to be used?
Labels:
social software,
software development
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