Setting the structure for social comfort using social lenses to see and understand how to design for social environments. Presented at World IA Day 2015, Washington, DC.

1. Setting Structure
for Social Comfort
Thomas Vander Wal
21 February 2015
World IA Day 2015 :: Washington, DC

2. Who is Thomas?

3. Non-digital

4. Commonwealth Club
of California

5. Understanding
Social Software for
Mainstream Adoption

6. “I don’t want to be the
company idiot!”

7. Look to human
social interactions

8. Social Scripts

9. Rethink how tools map
to human needs

10. What is Trust?

11. Too many
components to trust

12. Stop using
the term trust

13. Encourage the use of
words that describe trust

14. Comfort
Dependable Valued
Honest
Consistent
BelievableLoved
Treasured
Etcetera...
Respect

15. Social Comfort

16. 3 Parts of
Social Comfort
• People
• Tools
• Content

17. Social Comfort
with People

18. Elements of
Social Software

19. Identity Object
Presence
Collaboration
Actions
Groups
Sharing
Reputation
Relationships
Conversation

20. Build
Order
Identity Object
Presence
Actions
Sharing
Reputation
Relationship
Conversation
Groups
Collaboration

21. Build
Order
Identity Object
Presence
Actions
Sharing
Reputation
Relationship
Conversation
Groups
Collaboration
Traditional
Groupware

22. Who Are These People?

23. Paradox of Familiarity
• Familiarity through working together
• Familiarity through reputation
• Hallway familiarity
• Online familiarity

24. Building Comfort
with People
• Similar interest
• Similar life stories
• Similar experiences
• People in common

25. Consumating’s
“Quirkiness Factor”

26. Some Caution
Needed

27. While finding a common bond that
is private or rare occurrence
between people can lead to really
strong bonds, often people don’t
want this public.

28. •Beware of privacy
•Let people set what is shared
•Allow for progressive
disclosure
•Allow for an “ask”

29. •Some sensitive areas:
- Health
- Relationship status
- Personal matters
- Mental health
- Finances

30. •Set 3 category types for sharing
- Openly shared
- Share if connected and there is
a match
- Ask to share
Structure Share Categories

31. Transparency

32. Profiles

33. Build profiles from the
viewers perspective
• Breadth of social possible connections
• Contextual disclosure
- Things in common between people
- Relevance of semi-private disclosure

34. What are things that
would erode comfort?

35. Social Comfort
with Tools

36. Walled Gardens vs.
Open Sharing

37. Sharepoint default

38. Lack of comfort with
open sharing

39. Comfortable spaces
with permeable walls

40. Social Reticence of a
Click

41. “How broadly are my
activities shared”

42. “What do others think
‘this’ means”

43. What do the features and
functions of the tools/
service do?

44. When we...

45. Item
Hold On
Interest
Approve
Kudos

46. 7 Intents for Favorites
1. Favorite to see what you like over time
2. Favorite to share with others
3. Favorite to show you approve of something (as in
signing off with approval) or like
4. Use as a bookmark to come back to an item later
(No like nor dislike implied)
5. Give kudos to the creator of the item
6. Use as a hook to trigger other service actions
7. To acknowledge it has been seen, often implied as a
an end of a conversation

47. Social Progressions
• Personal
• Ideas shared (sparks)
• Gathering of others with interests (campfire)
• Broader interest gathering (bonfire)
• Honing for broad use and replications (torch)

48. Spark

49. Campfire

50. Bonfire

51. Torch

52. Social Comfort
with Content

53. 100% of content that
is potentially sharable

54. Content Sharing
Paradox

55. The goal is to share
100% of what one knows

56. This often takes sharing
with those one is most
comfortable with first

57. When people need to find “others
like me”
This is often the trigger eroding fears
that brings social comfort

58. The more personal the
issue, the more difficult it
is to attain social comfort

59. Externally Focussed Social
Empathy
• Sharing may hurt others
• Not wanting to “rock the boat”
• Whistle blowing concerns

60. Social Comfort
as a Whole

61. Thank You!

62. Credit of Other’s Photos
• Commonwealth Club, by Steve Rhodes photo of Lowell Bergman
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/389255633/sizes/l/

63. E-mail: thomas@vanderwal.net
Skype: tjvanderwal
Twitter: @vanderwal & @infocloud
Blog: http://personalinfocloud.com
Site: http://vanderwal.net