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Steve says...

I just wrapped up a nine-day swing through California, the majority of which I was in Silicon Valley. Every time I visit the Bay Area (which I truly love to visit) I am always struck by how technology pervades the region much more so than any other. Digerati chatter is everywhere, from the coffeehouses to the billboards that line US 101.

While technology influences all of us, life is different inside the bubble of the Valley. This is why I am glad I get to spend so much time each year in several major cities: Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, LA, as well as San Francisco and Silicon Valley. My travels help me maintain a broader perspective that I believe the Valley sometimes misses. I am increasingly embracing my time on the road because it (hopefully) helps me maintain a wider worldview.

Here's a small example of what I mean. In the gallery below I pulled together the welcome screens that grace some of the more popular social networks and communities on the web. As you look at these note how similar the language is - particularly Twitter, digg, Friendfeed and Stumbleupon. 

Now try to imagine you're a new user from Bismark or Des Moines who heard about these sites on CNN, would you sign up - and how might you choose?  Do these sites only speak to Silicon Valley, rather than the broader universe of citizens they hope to attract? If so, how might this hamper their growth?

That's what's on my mind tonight now that I am back in NY.

           
Click here to download:
Gallery_How_the_Leading_Social.zip (434 KB)

Filed under: Digg, Facebook, Foursquare, Friendfeed, language, marketing, positioning, social networks, StumbleUpon, Twitter

garry says...


garry says...

A great addition to this explanation would be some discussion about modes.

A few examples they present include: a) a Microsoft Windows wizard experience, b) date choosers that use two separate month and year combo boxes instead of just one combined combo box.

In both cases, you take away control while introducing additional modes, which are invisible states that the user must divine through context clues around the implementation of the user experience. That's partially why engineers can make such truly awful UI -- but it makes sense to them because it matches their mental model.

Wizards encode modes into the fixed, rigid "choose-your-own-adventure" style of navigating seemingly disconnected questions that don't connect me with what is really happening. (GROSS!)

Ultimately the most telling slide is the one around progressive disclosure -- hide things where people will find them.

As an aside, I've been quite impressed with how Slideshare and Scribd have made Powerpoint docs super accessible. It's simply unprecedented how easy it is to absorb information in bite-sized chunks from such beautiful and well designed presentations.

Filed under: creativity, product design

Michelle says...

To listen on your ipod when you are walking around the city alone.
 


garry says...

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Filed under: autopost, customization, New Features