Molecular Voices » Evan Gerber

Evan Gerber

Posts written by Evan Gerber

September 25

Some Do’s and Don’t of developing Facebook apps

MySpace might have a bigger audience for the moment, but Facebook is certainly on a rapid growth trajectory, and it is currently the media darling of social networks. One of the reasons for Facebook’s growing popularity is the ability to create applications which users share virally. This particularly alluring feature provides companies with a unique opportunity to provide innovative and fun brand experiences that reach a large audience through trusted channels. While a successful Facebook campaign is an exciting prospect, a misguided foray into social media marketing can leave a high profile and expensive blemish on the brand image, both with consumers as well as in the media. To succeed, it is crucial that brand managers consider a number of challenges, including technical constraints, usability hurdles, and the difficulties of creating a widget which lends itself to viral replication. This article will cover some of the critical challenges and constraints of developing a solid Facebook application, as well as review current Facebook applicationss to explore the success or failure of certain features and campaigns.

Keep it simple and fun

Facebook applications are, by and large, fun and fluffy mechanisms by which users communicate with their friends. In order to remain fun and fluffy, and to promote adoption, applications must be intuitive or easy to pick up. Simplicity is key, because as the head of user support at Facebook mentioned to me in an interview, “users don’t like to read.” This should not shock anyone, after all, no user really does read, however, there are other facets to consider when developing an app for a social network. Simplicity is crucial because it leads to adoption and viral spread.

Roshambull is a game put out by Red Bull which allows users to play rocks paper scissors with one another. It’s a game that everyone knows, it’s simple, and it’s fun to play with other people. The no-brainer aspect of this definitely helps viral spread, as, unlike other games, you don’t have to ponder your move. Another example of this simplicity is Zombies. Bite your friends and they too, turn into zombies. Both games are extremely popular, and this is due in no small part to the fact that they are quick to pick up, and make it easy and fun to engage friends.

Make it viral, but don’t be sleazy

Facebook is pretty much built to be a conduit to inform friends of what is going on. User actions show up in all their friends’ newsfeeds. Mechanisms to promote viral propagation are built into the Facebook Toolkit. The list goes on and on, but it’s important to remember not to abuse the power that this website gives you. First of all, users are sensitive about what they send to their friends; nobody wants to be a spammer. This is especially applicable on facebook, where a typical user has 300 contacts, and very few of them are good friends. Secondly, privacy is a concern to users. If an application leverages a viral tool without the user’s express consent and explicit understanding, it will be very poorly received. If the user does not understand what is happening, they will worry that their account has been compromised. If the user realizes that the application is sending info without their permission, it won’t last long. Most users have a small number of applications, certainly under 10, and there are always new ones coming along to compete. So make the application viral, and help it spread within users social networks, but don’t over do it.

Design within the constraints of the Facebook Application

The applications that run within facebook are constrained by what the website will and will not allow. It is critical that the experience design team understands what is and is not possible within the limits imposed. For example, a users’ profile page will not allow flash animations. As such, any flash based application should not be designed to run from there, even if it would be a great entry point. Also, the table structure on certain pages is very solidly defined, and cannot be changed. This will greatly impact the page design. Finally, certain processes, such as application installation, are run by the facebook app itself, and cannot be changed. It’s important that the team is familiar with these limitations, and the technical underpinnings of the site.

Match the facebook toolkit

Any application, web or otherwise, is more usable if it’s consistent. For example, users are more likely to click buttons when they are following a consistent visual treatment, and similar page layouts help task completion. Facebook is no exception to this rule; users expect that the applications running on the platform will behave in the same way. Ensure that the page layout is reminiscent of other facebook pages, such as the profile or homepage. Check that buttons and page elements don’t contradict the larger facebook look and feel. While this might seem like common sense, if can be very challenging to ensure that there is not too much of a variance as the application evolves. Periodic check ins, or frequent ad hoc user testing are great ways to ensure that the application remains usable and consistent with the facebook application.

As social networks become more and more entrenched in our culture, the number of users on these platforms will grow. Facebook is a major player, and predicted by many to retain it’s predominance for years to come. As such, brand managers will do well to explore the possibility of creating an application for the platform, but they must be mindful of challenges around experience design, technical constraints, and viral behaviors.

posted to: Web 2.0 & Social Media | 3 Comments »

August 7

Bacon, Brands, and Social Networking Success!

by Evan Gerber

Bacon is more than the smoky, salty, savory strips of deliciousness that garnish our breakfasts and more refined cocktails (the Mitch Morgan). It’s the subject of deep and meaningful philosophical debate (just ask Sir Francis Bacon or Thomas Bacon), the center of the acting universe (Kevin Bacon), and the bane of well meaning but conflicted vegetarians everywhere (A friend of mine in engineering and strict veggie calls it “the gateway meat”). It is also an example of how a brand can actually succeed on a social network, using it to drive retail sales and build awareness.

Now, I’ll be honest. I really have some questions about social networking as a brand platform – it’s not right for everyone, and in some cases is worse than a waste of money, it’s a public failure. But, the makers of Bacon Salt, a line of seasoning salt that makes all food taste like bacon (and is kosher, to boot!), it was the cornerstone of their success.

They launched their business by finding users of MySpace and Facebook who said that they love bacon on their profiles. There are at least 35,000 people who say that on MySpace, and the I love bacon group has almost 2500 members. While some would scoff and say that’s not much, others would point out that 2500 is far better than the majority of branded fan pages do. And in the case of Bacon Salt, it propelled them from zeros to heroes in no time.

“We basically launched the product on MySpace and Facebook… the week we launched, we had orders from everywhere” said Dave Lefkow, co-founder and bacon genius. So many orders, in fact, that they couldnt handle the volume of work.

Now, obviously, anything with bacon is going to succeed wildly. (possibly with the exception of the bacon flavored tuxedo available at archiemcphee.com). What is interesting in this case, is how social networking helped this particular brand, and why. The only brands that will do well on a social network are those that people want to align themselves with. Social networks are about branding oneself to friends, colleagues, and that ex-girl or boyfriend from college. Bacon is not only universally adored, it’s a little campy and fun, and it’s something that people want to associate with.

So if you’re thinking about bringing your brand into the social networking space, dont just think about the costs, and risks. Stop for a moment and think about if the brand is something people can relate to, and want to identify themselves with. It might save you a lot of hassle, and give more time for the eating of delicious, hickory smoked bacon.

posted to: Molecular News | 1 Comment »

July 18

Code Blue! Cellphone!

by Evan Gerber

Thursday evenings, it’s Gray’s Anatomy. Our living room suddenly converts into a breathless waiting room, inhabitants imbibing each nuance of dialogue with rapt attention. Will the patient miraculously recover and whisk Katherine Heigl away (if so, o Lord, let me get sick in Seattle), or croak at the very end of the episode?

Unlike the drama at the Seattle Grace hospital, the prognosis for the cellphone is certain, and it’s not good. As phones get smarter, data plans become cheaper, and consumer experience improves, the demise of the cellphone grows ever closer. People will still have phones, absolutely and always, but phones will have morphed into something else entirely.

Instead of a tool designed to support voice communications, it will become a digital jackknife – a device that does everything you want portable electronic devices to do. Not only take pictures, and voice, and text, but a storage center for files that can access the internet. Or act as your GPS unit complete with driving directions. Or act like a credit/debit card. Basically, the sky is the limit so long as people want new and better toys, and the way we use these devices will fundamentally change.

While Apple’s debacle last week was a bit of a pooch, the release of the app store is going to be gasoline on the fire of phone OS development. With a huge array of applications at the user’s disposal, the iPhone will be used less and less for talking, and more and more for other things. The iPhone is a platform, not a product, and it’s direction is oriented more towards compting than yapping.

This change will extend to other phones and applications, as well. Google is working on the Android platform, along with a host of other investments into the mobile computing space, to force the carrier’s grip off of network content. The software available to users, and the things that the systems will perform will mirror the functionality of our current laptops, not cellphones.

It’s truly exciting to watch the changes sweeping the mobile space. Almost as exciting as watching Katherine Heigl and the patient, but hey, I have yet to see a cellphone in scrubs.

oops, commercial’s over. bbl.

posted to: Industry Trends, Mobile | 2 Comments »

June 20

Haptic. It’s more than just a 25 cent word.

by Evan Gerber

I love words; as a guy who specializes in how people interact with technology, a big part of understanding these interactions is framed by the vocabularies that articulate what we’re doing, or how we’d do it. And it’s really fascinating to watch how words evolve to describe our reality, especially as the rate of change accelerates how our culture adapts, and what we’re doing. Some words are new, and become used in interesting colloquial ways as technologies are adopted and integrated with society. For example, it seems highly unlikely that people in the mid-1700s were saying that they focused on churning butter with a laser like intensity. Other words are old, but get dusted off as technology picks them up and finds new applications for them.

The word ‘Haptic’ is a great example of this. From the Greek haptesthai, meaning ‘to touch,’ it made it’s debut circa 1890 describing the psychology of the sense of touch. Over time, it has come to include all things touch related. And now, as mobile technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it is starting to be used as a new marketing term to describe phones that respond not only visually and aurally, but with some kind of touch response as well.

For example, I get in trouble with my girlfriend. Because I’m in low-to-mid trouble, I can get out of it by being kind of cute. So I might MMS her a little heart icon, and as the heart beats, the phone vibrates. Now, she’s probably not thinking “awwww, he sent me a little haptic message that alerts my sense of touch!’, she is hopefully thinking ‘awww he’s thinking about me and this is cute!’ (Disclaimer: I don’t actually know if haptic MMSing will get a guy out of trouble, and don’t plan to test. Don’t take unnecessary risks and rely on technology to get out of them) Another example would be a blackberry vibrating as it rings. Not terribly sophisticated, and not terribly sexy, but you get the idea.

It’s not the behavior of the iPhone; while multitouch is a revolutionary feature, the user still poking an inert screen with no response. But what the iPhone has done is raise the awareness with the consumer of a truly portable touch screen, and raise the bar for Apple’s competitors. These two forces will combine to accelerate development of truly haptic interfaces. Many iPhone users lament the fact that their phone is tough to use, and would prefer a more sophisticated typing experience. It’s certainly an area where competitors can hope to compete with the incredible design of the device, through creating an interface that actually reacts to the user pressing on the keyboard.

Enter Nokia. After more than 10 years of development, they have introduced a prototype device that makes touching a screen feel like clicking a keyboard. The N770 internet tablet provides the user with a true sensory experience, complete with downward movement, resistance, clicking, and an upward movement. It makes typing feel “incredibly responsive” and simplifies the task greatly. Apparently, they will ship the technology with the S60 touchphone, as well, and are working on haptic interactions for scrolling and painting applications.

When these applications reach the US market, and as the technology cascades down in cost and up in availability, terms like “haptic” will worm their way more and more into common usage. As the technology moves from the realm of research, to phone geeks, to mainstream, the word haptic will become more and more commonly used. While I don’t think it will capture the public imagination like the acronym LASER did in the past, it will become a feature that people expect, and marketing touts, until it’s taken for granted as a feature set on future devices. And hopefully, by that time, there will be a reliable technology that gets guys out of trouble – sort of the electronic equivalent of roses and chocolate. Lord knows I’m waiting for that one.

posted to: Experience Design, Industry Trends, Mobile | No Comments »

June 6

m-payments takes another step towards reality in the US

by Evan Gerber

Otis, my dog, has learned to wait at the top of the stairs when we leave the house for a walk. This is because Otis is a smart dog, and he knows that I’ve likely forgotten one of The Critical Three – cellphone, wallet, and keys, and will have to rush up the stairs, grumbling, to get whatever it is that’s sitting on the kitchen table.

But it seems like we’re getting closer to the day when I will only have to worry about the cellphone and the keys – mPayment, or the ability to use a mobile phone like a swipeable credit card, is taking strides towards reality. Already in use in Japan and Korea, this technology allows the consumer to go into a store, grab their items off the shelf, and pay for them by waving their phone at the cash register. Like many other mobile initiatives, this work is hampered here by a lack of standards, multiple carriers and device manufacturers angling for dominance in a rapidly changing market, and a relative lack of awareness on the part of US consumers.

However, there have been a few noteworthy changes in the past few months. The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) announced on June 5th that they will be working to explore different technology models used to support mobile payments, and make recommendations on approaches to facilitate interoperable mobile payments in the future. 25 industry players, including large banks, wireless carriers, and technology providers, are collaborating to research the baseline by which this important technology might become a reality in the not too distant future. In April, Sprint and PayPal inked a deal to enable person to person mobile payments. MyMoneyManager enables Sprint customers with PayPal to transfer funds to other users. When the transaction is completed, they get a voicemail or text message alert. Phone manufacturer Motorola invested in Vivotech late last year. Vivotech makes units which can interact with cellphones in a number of places, includingstores, movie theaters, taxis, and vending machines.

The financial vertical, overall, is seen to be a great place for mobile to flex it’s muscles and show consumers how useful the third screen will be. It’s an exciting time, and hopefully, as the system matures and evolves, will be widely adopted and provide our clients with a great opportunity to reach out and provide value to, our customers. And best of all, Otis will only have to wait at the top of the stairs for The Critical Two – the wallet can stay safely on the kitchen table while the keys and the phone come with me.

posted to: Mobile | 3 Comments »