@SkweiRd wrote:
Found this in a Josh Elman article, and I think it's interesting.
The second shift, and this is what many interface designers don’t yet understand, is that people learn how to do things in the real world by watching others. The way most 18 year olds learn how to use a new app is by watching their friends. It’s right there, on their friend’s phone, so they just pull the phone out and show them something.
This is actually a return to the way we’ve always learned to do things in the world. You learned to throw a ball, pick up a cup, tie your shoes, and open a door by watching others. When you were older you probably learned how to ride a bike or drive a car by having someone show you how to do it. So if software is more physical now (in app form), why shouldn’t we learn how to do it by watching other people?
Do you want to know how to use Snapchat? Toparaphrase Groucho Marx, it’s easy: Just find a teenager to show you. Someone who uses the app a lot can show you everything from how to take a picture and draw on it to using filters, getting the secret pen colors like black and white, use face swap, add friends with a QR code, and more.
On shareable design...
Shareable design understands this deeply social nature of how humans learn, and capitalizes on people’s desires to learn and to teach.
Snapchat does this brilliantly, because each of those seemingly obscure features is an opportunity for its users to show their friends how to do something cool. Showing your friends something cool can increase your social standing, or maybe it just gives you a good feeling. Either way it’s something you want to do! And for Snapchat, that’s great, because it’s converting you into an evangelist for its product, and you don’t even feel like you’re evangelizing: You’re just showing your friends how to do something neat.
Have you seen any startups in this neck of the woods use 'shareable design'? I haven't. Yet. It's mostly hamburger menus. Are designers over here playing it safe and replicating the familiar? Will users who are only just coming online feel alienated by any non-conventional design tropes? Or maybe the use cases African startups design apps for do not call for anything else? @leslie, @udezekene, @efemoney @moyinoluwa thoughts?
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