A tool to assess social usability
I have just re-discovered the social usability checklist, which is a simple yet powerful tool which can help assessing the social properties of any software or service.
As the authors say the checklist develops from the four properties defining social usability:
- Relations: How easy is it to find other people and connect to them? How easy is it to keep those connections active? How relevant are those connections?
- Identity: How rich is one’s personal identity expression? How much are interests and passions expressed? How much are personal distinctive traits show? How much is privacy management detailed?
- Communication: How fast can a message reach the other person? How many messages can one handle efficiently? How easy is it to handle conversations (1-to-1, 1-to-some, 1-to-many)?
- Emergence of Groups: How easy is it to create groups, aggregate and talk around a common interest? How active are groups once established? How long do they last? How much is important to be part of a group?
A few key properties expand on each of the four topics and are associated with a question. The list can thus be used both while developing and while evaluating a service, in the first case trying to give a positive answer for each question in the context of the system being developed, in the latter case using the checklist as a trace to guide the analysis.
It should be noticed that the checklist stems from a larger work by Davide Casale and Gianandrea Giacoma on motivational design that deserves to be known by those working on social systems (and who isn’t today?)