Discovery and Web 2.0

1. Discovery is the new cocaine
Going beyond engagement
By: Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio)
Note: Section on “Flow” was derived from
“The Science Of Designing Interactions” (SXSW 2008)
by Andreas Weigend (people and data), and Ming Yeow Ng (Discoverio)

2. Why should you care about
Discovery?
First off…

3. Source: WSJ, Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data March
12, 2008
What is it about a Web site that might
make it literally irresistible?
• We are programmed for scarcity and can't dial back even
when information is abundant
• … (addictive sites) all presented new information that
somehow needed to be interpreted…
• this triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good…
From Wall Street Journal:

4. Done right, Discovery can make a
website irresistible!
In other words….

5. Desire by humans to be a live node in
the network
We are always…
“Constantly scanning the peripheral, always motivated by the
desire not to miss opportunities”
“Desire for other people recognizing us, make us feel important.”
“Services that win are those that help us protect, filter, create
meaningful connections ”
Linda Stone
What drives Discovery?
Source: Etech 2006

6. What is Discovery?
Allowing users to:
3. Discover new, valuable information
5. Get Discovered by others
7. Discovering more about themselves

7. Discovery of Information
New and Richly interpretable
information triggers chemical
reactions
Facilitate user towards:

8. Twitter, Friendfeed: Constant stream of
new information
New information

9. Facebook Breakups
⇒“Who was she?”
⇒“Was his girlfriend pretty??”
⇒“You mean she is gay???”
Richly Interpretable

10. Get Discovered by Others
“Who is paying attention to me?”
“Am I being recognized?”
Helping users to:

11. MyBlogLog
Who is checking me out?
Who is paying attention to me?
Twitter
Who is following me?

12. Discover More About Themselves
“Who am I to others?”
“What do I like?”
Allowing users to:
Key here: People do not know what they want!

13. Tickle: What am I?
(400 million personality tests taken)
The Old Personality Test The New Personality Test
What am I to others?

14. Amazon :
Collective Recommendation
What do I like?
Stylefeeder:
Analyzing attributes

15. Facilitate the Discovery Cycle for
your users
Taking all 3 types together:

16. Engage and allow contribution of information,
leaving of footprints, and giving of feedback
2) System to
generate new
insights for user
1) Discovery of
Content and Users
3) Other Users
to discover him
Data becomes basis for:
Personalized
Recommendations
Interactions that lead
to reciprocity and
interactions
User learning more
about himself
The Discovery Cycle for Your App
Continuous Learning, Contributing, Recognition
Throughout the process:
(Keeps him coming back!)
Meaningful connections
gets established

17. “Intermittent Variable Reinforcement “
• “One of Skinner's most important discoveries was that
behavior that is reinforced intermittently is much more
difficult to extinguish than behavior that is
reinforced continuously.“ – via Kathy Sierra
• "You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or
how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle.“ -
Patricia Wallace on slot machines
Done right, this leads to

18. Discovery is less about predicting
precisely right about what the user
wants
It is more about the entire user flow of
discovery, with all the hits and misses
In other words...
Think window shopping down the mall
or walking through an expo hall

19. Discovering Activity by Social Graph
Based on live updates
My good
friend
The guy with
great events
The babe I
check out
Based on collective behavior
and attention data

20. Collective Judging Collective Behavior

21. No concept of individual Personalization

22. Crowdvine: Updated profiles,
comments are on front page
Helping users get discovered Clear attention/intention data
Crowdvine: want-to-meet, fan

23. Apache Social Network: Open source
projects worked on together
Connecting based on commonalities

24. Exploitation Exploration

25. Connecting based on mutual interest

26. 26
Flickr:
Interestingness
Etsy:
Many ways to shop
Randomness that shows the new and richly interpretable

27. Etsy: 10 different fun ways to discover!
(boring categories are at the end)
Make it fun to explore

28. Understanding the elements of
“flow”
Feedback, Rewards, Lightweight,
Reducing uncertainty
How to create the right user experience?
Inspired by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

29. Direct and immediate feedback
Successes and failures in the course
of the activity are apparent, so that
behavior can be adjusted as needed
Elements of flow (1)

30. Feedback can be by system or can be by
other users
Feedback for users to guide their future behavior
30
Contribution to others
Achievements
Popularity
Metrics for:
Wrong-doings
Maslow Hierarchy

31. Yelp: popularity, achievement,
and contribution
How am I doing?

32. Cash = power
Value = desirability
Points as indicators of power and desirability
32

33. Linkedin Profile Completeness
Pointing out “deficiencies” to induce actions
Setting expected “norm”

34. Rewards
Intrinsically Rewarding
Clarity of Reward
Recognition for contribution
Elements of flow (2)

35. Twitter: Self Expression is its own
reward
Intrinsically Rewarding

36. Twitter: Validation, and Social Interaction
are powerful rewards by themselves
Intrinsically Rewarding

37. Clear recognition for intended actions
Digg:
Made popular by…
Crowdvine:
Updated profiles, comments
are on front page

38. Best Match: Invite 10 to see “best
matches”
Making Rewards Clear and Explicit

39. GetSatisfaction: I have this question
too!
Suggest action and clarify reward

40. Lightweight Interactions
Make it easy for users to contribute
Elements of Flow (3)

41. Crowdvine:
Fan : expression of confidence
Want-to-meet: initiate relationship
Lightweight, In the moment expressions
Yelp:
Variety of lightweight
interactions directly on reviews

42. Lijit: Made the process entertaining and a little
mysterious, with rewards at each step
Make user do as little as possible
Signup Time 15m -> 2m
Conversion 0.1% -> 4%
Source: Lijit, SXSW 2008
Automated retrieval of
external data, all user
needs to do is confirm

43. Woot: One Single Action
Do not make users think

44. Reducing fear and uncertainty
Uncertainty, even irrelevant
uncertainty kills action
Elements of Flow (4)

45. Twitter: Communicating with little fear
of incurring cost to recipient
Assurance that it is up to recipients’ “mode of receiving”

46. Zoosk: Flirt vs risk
Reducing Personal Commitment

47. HotorNot: No risk of “rejection”
Surfacing Improbable Matches
47

48. Crowdvine: Showing social behavior
right on frontpage
Reducing uncertainty on “correct” behavior
Latest
Comments

49. Day Trading
Elements of Addiction
MMORPG
1) Attractor: Things happening outside your control in the
system, yet affecting your status
3) Motivator: You have a stake (self-
esteem/emotional/financial) in changes happening to your
status Source: "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction" Nick Yee

50. Systematically Introducing Discovery
Into Your App (uncompleted)
1. Know what data points you need (Individual / Collective / External)
3. Know what mode of discovery (Recommendations / Search / Browsing)
5. Create pathways of discovery (Filtering / Anchoring )
7. Maximize exploration / exploitation within the pathway (Intention /
Attention)
9. Providing reasons/context for discovery ( Context/Persona/Content)
11. Facilitating mediums for connections (Currency / Reputation)
13. Understand what metrics you need (Diversity, Virality, Engagement)
Process by Ming Yeow Ng, Yu-shan Fung (Discoverio)

51. We LOVE Feedback!!!
• Discovery is a new, unexplored and very exciting
area to be innovating in, and we love to hear
from anyone who is just as excited about this as
us!
• Touch base with us via any of these mechanisms
– mingyeow@discoverio.com | @mingyeow (twitter)
– yushan@discoverio.com | @ambivalence (twitter)