Designing for the first 15 minutes

March 26th, 2010 • Digital Content, Social Media

• We are designers are very attuned to bad experiences.”
• Designers are designing for themselves – but the philosophy falls flat for the new user experience because we’re only a new user once. Esp. true for social networks because we can’t go back and feel what it’s like to discover and become friends with a new group of people for the first time.
• Ask for registration after users have done something worth saving – after they have invested time in your site. Another strategy is to prove that what’s over the registration wall is worth registering for. (Gowalla does it well)
• Design a roadmap around an ah-ha moment. Let people continue with the new user flow even if they haven’t confirmed their email yet so they can get to the ahha moment sooner.
• Eliminate everything before the ah-ha oment.
• The feedback cycle for getting a user from new user to very engaged and active user is important but a lot of this hearkens from game design – (eg. spore. mint.com, bejewelled.com) At Facebook, the high level feedback is around sharing.
• User education is an experience – not something they have to read out of a textbook. (eg. glitch.com, yammer, games)
• Games teach you controls as part of the gameplay – go left, right  try. “In Super Mario Galaxy, the first task is to jump over the bunnies, which is fun. You don’t even realize you’re being taught because you are so immersed in it.”
• Tumblr is great example as well.

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