游戏邦注：本文作者是Joshua Porter，他在接受Christine Perfetti的采访中谈到了社交应用如何吸引用户、培养热心用的问题，本文系第一部分访谈内容，第二部分内容请阅读：Joshua Porter谈社交应用及行业发展形势。

Designing for the Social Web(from pearsoned.co.uk)

在你编写的书籍《Designing for the Social Web》中的第1版中，你强调了开发团队需要重新考虑设计方法，更加关注应用用户生命周期。那么，设计团队应当如何做出此等转变呢？

用户生命周期指的是人们使用你的应用、服务或产品的生命周期。通常来说，当团队在设计应用时，他们通常会将用户视为统一体。但是，如果从用户生命周期的出发点来看待用户，每个用户之间都存在差异，因为每个人使用产品的生命周期都不同。

网站和应用的用户发展主要分为5个阶段：不知道；感兴趣；首次使用；用户；热心用户。如果设计师能够了解用户处在生命周期中的哪个阶段，以及他们此刻想要做什么事情，那么就能够做出最好的设计决定。这个想法听起来很简单，但它改变了整个设计方法。

如果设计团队能够将重心放在用户生命周期上，他们就堪称优秀的销售人员。销售人员在接触顾客时，会首先观察这个人处在哪个销售阶段，他的最终目标是什么。如果你将自己的应用视为某些用户在使用或购买的产品，那么这个过程就与销售循环极为相似。

在用户生命周期的各个阶段中，用户都有着不同的需求和问题。你能说说这其中的差异吗？

大多数人首次看到你的应用时，都不知道你到底要为他们提供什么服务。事实上，这都不能算作是一个阶段，因为这个阶段的大多数人根本不知道你的产品的存在。

每两个阶段间都有必须逾越的障碍。“不知道”和“感兴趣”直接隔着的是“了解”。当人们进入感兴趣阶段，他们会提出另一些问题。比如，他们可能会问：这个产品和我目前正在使用的产品有何关联？这个产品或服务能否满足我的需求？它与市场上其他产品和服务相比质量如何？

多数初创公司都需要致力于解决“感兴趣”阶段所面临的挑战。他们需要解决的问题是“了解”。初创公司必须帮助用户学习使用他们的应用，从中获取信任。我推荐，这个阶段团队应该强调应用的价值。

通常来说，一旦用户开始与应用互动，这些最初的问题就不复存在，现在他们成了应用真正的用户。常规用户的关注点又完全不同。他们使用产品来完成任务，实现他们的终极目标。在他们开始使用应用后，他们的思维方式也发生了变化。在这个阶段，团队需要关注的是如何帮助用户实现他们的目标，让人们意识到产品的功能以及带来的便利性。

对我而言，认清楚这些差别很有价值。我越来越深信，认清用户的生命周期和环境非常重要。如果你能理解这些内容，你就可以更有效地帮助和吸引用户。

对于设计团队如何在开始阶段吸引用户接触产品，你有何推荐方法？

设计团队可以使用许多富有成效的小型战略。如果团队能定下发布时间，那么我推荐可以先期投放测试版本，或发出邀请告知人们你正在做什么产品。

比如，我们会让潜在客户向我们提供他们的电子邮件，这样我们就能在发布之时通知他们。当我们提供这项服务时，就吸引了数千人注册。这是个很简单的是事情，但许多初创公司并没有这么做。

另一个有效的战略是消息测试。在此等测试中，团队可以为他们的应用设计两个或多个主页面（游戏邦注：或登录页面），看看访问者对哪个页面的反响较好。一旦各个页面产生流量，你就可以简单快速地识别出用户更喜欢哪种页面。根据你的不同业务目标，转化方法也多种多样，比如让用户提供邮箱，注册测试版本或注册产品。

这项做法帮助公司了解他们的价值取向是否有效地为访问者所理解。事实上，多数情况下这种两者间的交流都需要得到增强。在某些情况下，开发商甚至最初传达出的消息是错误的，比如团队关注的事情并不会得到目标用户的回应。因而，测试行为很重要，我也对此很感兴趣。

许多应用碰到了个普遍问题，那就是人们注册后就没有再继续使用应用。设计师要如何解决这个问题呢？

确实，我也经常发现此类问题。我将这种现象称为“起步”问题。也就是说，人们注册应用后就不知道接下来要做什么了。

为解决这个问题，我通常会向客户推荐在应用初始页面中展示相关内容。比如，如果你的应用允许用户制作一个窗口部件，那么预先展示已经支持的窗口部件就是个很有效的战略举措。这样应用对用户也能产生更强的吸引力。

在用户生命周期方面，多数解决方案都是相对较小的解决方案。但如果每个阶段都采取正确的做法，应用就能得到很大的提升。在应用方面，一两次的惊人之举并没有什么。只有将所有这些互动统一起来才能构建成功的用户体验。

设计团队如何为他们的产品创造热心粉丝？

经常有营销团队向我提出这个问题。他们通常会选择尝试添加社交功能来创造热心用户。他们或许会说道：“我们会提供更多分享选择或更多分享机会。”然而，尽管在界面中添加社交功能能够导致用户更频繁地与应用互动，但这绝非创造热心用户的正确方法。

最佳方法是让用户在某些事情上有出色的表现。比如，假设你正在设计类似于Mail Chimp、Emma、Constant Contact或Campaign Monitor的邮件营销软件。此类应用获取热心用户的最佳方法是让他们把邮件营销人员这份工作干得更为出色。

这需要团队关注用户在与产品互动时的体验，让用户精于应用所能提供的服务。最棒的设计团队会关注用户的单个行为，确保产品有效地支持这些行为并让它们变得更为简单易用。一旦人们从产品中得到实惠，他们就会谈论并与其他人分享产品。这才是真正可靠的做法。Campaign Monitor就是个绝佳的例子，这个相对较小的团队成功地教会他们的用户如何成为更好的邮件营销人员。

也就是说，最棒的团队不只会考虑在产品中添加社交功能。在你的书籍中，你谈到过用户个人价值还有更深层次的内容。你如何萌生出这种想法？

许多年以前，我和某个设计师交谈过，他正在设计一款供跑步者使用的应用。

在这款跑步应用中，用户可以输入他们自己的跑步时间。尽管我本身并非热衷于跑步的人，但我确实对这种分享跑步数据并由此产生的竞争所带来的社交机会感到兴奋。我知道许多人喜欢与他人竞争，因而我认为这款应用的潜力巨大。

但是该应用的设计师认为我的想法有偏差。他对应用的社交性并没有多大兴趣。虽然应用可以允许用户在线与他人分享跑步时间，但社交影响力并非这些跑步者真正感兴趣的东西。这些用户更看重的是自身的提高。尽管分享数据是个很棒的副产品，但对跑步者来说最重要的是他们能否跑的比之前更快。

从中我受到了启发，因为我忽然发现同样的问题也不断在社交软件项目上出现。对用户来说，个人价值处在首要地位，多数情况下要优于社交价值。我用其用流行书签站点来命名，称其为“Del.icio.us Lesson”。在Del.icio.us中，人们标记文章并将其与其他群体分享，看似极大地关注社交层面的内容。但是，多数人并没有用Delicious来与他人分享内容。他们主要将其当成书签来使用，这样他们随后就可以很方便地阅读相关文章。

我努力记住这个要点。只有你首先关注为用户提供个人价值，人们才会考虑到与他人分享的价值。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2010年9月30日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Creating Engaged and Passionate Users

Joshua Porter

With the rise of the Social Web as a primary channel for many businesses, creating engaged and passionate users becomes a primary problem…my friend Christine Perfetti of Perfetti Media recently interviewed me about how to incorporate social features into social applications. Here’s part 1 of our discussion.

Christine: In the first edition of your book, Designing for the Social Web, you emphasized that teams need to rethink their design approach and focus more on the Usage Lifecycle. How is this a shift in thinking for most design teams?

Me: The Usage Lifecycle is the lifecycle of the people who use your application, service, or product. Typically, when teams approach their design, they often end up looking at a homogenous set of users. However, when we look at users from the Usage Lifecycle standpoint, each user becomes different immediately because each person is at a different stage of their lifecycle.

There are five main stages that users traverse through with web sites and applications: 1) Unaware, 2) Interested, 3) First-time User, 4) Customer, and 5) Passionate Customer. Design decisions are best made when designers know what lifecycle stage someone is in and what they’re trying to do at that moment. It’s a very simple idea, but it changes the entire approach to design.

When design teams focus on the Usage Lifecycle, they take an approach similar to what a great salesperson would do. When a salesperson approaches a customer, they first find out where the person is in the sales process and what their ultimate goal is. When you think about your application as something someone is using or purchasing, it’s very similar to a sales cycle.

At each stage of the Usage Lifecycle, users have very different needs and questions. Can you talk about these differences?

When most people first come to your application, they are unaware of what you have to offer them. It isn’t so much a stage, as a starting point. Most people are in this stage: completely unaware of your product.

Each of the stages are separated by hurdles. The hurdle between the “Unaware” stage and the “Interested” stage is “Awareness”. When people are in the Interested stage, they have a unique set of questions. For example, they ask: How does this product relate to what I’m currently using? Will this product or service fit my needs? How does it compare with other products and services on the market?

Most startups need to focus on solving the challenges in the Interested Stage. The problems they need to iron out are Awareness problems. Startups must help users learn about the application, gain confidence, and get users started most effectively. In this stage, I recommend that teams focus on messaging and emphasize the value proposition of the application.

Typically, once users start interacting with the application, most of these initial concerns disappear and now they are Users of the application. As Regular Users, their concerns are now completely different. They are using the product to accomplish a task and fulfill their end goals. When they use the application, they have a different mindset. At this stage, teams need to focus on helping users accomplish their goals and move beyond just making people aware of the product’s features and benefits.

For me, this level of distinction is incredibly valuable. I’m more and more convinced this is where to focus: where users are in their lifecycle and environment. If you can understand this about people, you can help users more effectively.

What are the best practices you recommend design teams use to first start getting users engaged in a product?

There are a lot of small and effective strategies design teams can use. If your team knows ahead of time when you’ll be launching, I recommend having a beta phase or set up an invitation list to tell people about what you’re doing.

For example, at Performable, we asked prospects to give us their email address to contact them when we launched. When we offered this option, thousands of people signed up. This is a simple thing, but a lot of startups don’t do it.

Another great tactic is message testing. With message testing, teams design two or more home pages (or landing pages) for their application and see what message resonates better with visitors. Once traffic starts arriving at the page, you can easily quickly see which message variations convert the best. Conversion can be different things depending on your business goals, such as users giving you email, signing up for a beta, or signing up for the product.

This technique helps companies find out whether their value proposition is being communicated effectively with visitors. In almost all cases it can be strengthened. In some cases the initial message is the wrong one, such as focusing on a benefit that just doesn’t resonate with the target audience. There is a lot of action in the testing space right now and I’m excited to be a part of it.

A common problem with many applications is that people sign up and then never consistently use it. How can designers combat this problem?

Yes, I see this happen all the time. I call this phenomenon the “Getting Started” problem. This is when people sign up or register for your application and then don’t know what to do next.

To solve this problem, I often recommend that clients pre-populate the initial application page with content. For example, if you have an application that allows people to make a widget, it’s very powerful tactic to pre-populate with a widget already made. People are far more engaged when they get to see how the application works instead of starting with a blank canvas.

With the Usage Lifecycle, most of the solutions are relatively small solutions, but taken together, it really adds to a positive experience if you’ve gotten each step right. With your application, you can’t just have one cool thing happen with your product. It’s the sum total of interactions that make up a successful user experience.

How can design teams create passionate fans of their product?

This is a question I often get from marketing teams. They will often try and add social features to create passionate users. They’ll say, “Let’s offer more sharing buttons or more opportunities to share.” However, while putting a social feature in the interface may result in users completing the interaction more frequently, that’s not the right way to create passionate users.

The best approach is to make users good at something. For example, imagine you are tasked with designing an email marketing software, such as Mail Chimp, Emma, Constant Contact, or Campaign Monitor. The best way to get users passionate about these types of applications is to make them better at their jobs as email marketers.

This really has to do with focusing on the experience users have when they interact with your product and working on getting users good at what the application does. The best design teams focus on a single activity set and ensure that the product successfully supports these activities and makes them simple to do. Once people are good at using the product, they’ll talk about it and share with others. This will also be more authentic. Campaign Monitor is a great example of a relatively small team doing great things by teaching their users how to be better email marketers.

So, the best teams move beyond just thinking about what social features to add to their product. In your writings, you’ve said it’s really more about the personal value of what people are doing. How did you first come to that realization?

Many years ago, I had a conversation with a designer who was building an application for runners. At the time, tagging and folksonomies were the trend and I was really excited about the topic.

The running application enabled users to enter their running time. I’m not much of a runner myself but I was really excited by the social opportunities around sharing running data and the competition it would engender. Knowing that many people thrive on competing with others, I thought there was huge potential there.

But the designer of the app was adamant that I was missing the forest for the trees. He wasn’t all that excited about the social possibilities. While the application would let users share their running time online with others, social influence isn’t the real motivation for serious runners. The people in that market valued their own improvement much more than seeing what others were up to. While sharing was a nice side effect, the most important thing to runners was to see if they were faster than the day before.

This was an eye opener for me, as I suddenly saw this same mistake applied over and over in social software projects. For users, personal value comes first, it precedes social value almost all the time. I call this the Del.icio.us Lesson, named after the popular bookmarking site. With Del.icio.us, people were tagging articles and sharing with groups and there was a tremendous focus on the social aspect of it all. But most people didn’t use Delicious to share stuff with others. They primarily used it for bookmarking stuff for themselves so they could read later.

I try to keep this in mind. If you focus on giving users personal value first, then and only then will people start sharing that value with others. (Source: Bokardo)