designing systems that support social behavior

Thomas Erickson, Social Computing Group, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center.

Designing Collaborative Systems that Support Social Behavior

Thomas EricksonSocial Computing Group

IBM T. J. Watson Research Center

SBSC, WebMedia, SBBD, SBESFortaleza, October 5-7, 2009

Introduction

Outline of the talk• A Social Perspective

• The Face to Face World

• A Design Approach

• Examples

• Closing Remarks

A Social Perspective

A tale of two doors• A Problem:

A door opens into a hallway; opened too quickly it can slam into those on the other side.

• Two sorts of solutions…

A tale of two doors• Solution 1: A sign

“Open Door Slowly”

A tale of two doors• Solution 2: A window

• Why It Works

Visibility produces awareness: Movement and faces engage our attention in a way that text does not

• Why It Works

Awareness triggers social norms: I know that you’re there, and therefore social rules or norms come into play

• Why It Works

Awareness triggers social norms: I know that you’re there, and therefore social rules or norms come into play

Mutual visibility triggers accountability: I know that you know that I know,and therefore I am responsible to you

• Side Effect

Reinforcement of norms: The very act of doing the ‘dance’ at the doorway reinforces the social norms

The morals of this story• Many problems can be solved either

by technical means or social means

• And the design of a system can facilitate or inhibit social solutions

The Face to Face World

What can we learn from looking at social behavior in face to face interactions?

Latour and the missing mass(es)• A physics problem:

The universe is not flying apart as quickly as expected…

Latour and the missing mass(es)• A sociological problem:

People’s interactions are not nearly so random as might be expected

Latour and the missing mass(es)• Artifacts and environments play

critical roles in shaping behavior

• The metaphor of social structures as being under a dynamic tension, ready to fly apart except for a web of social forces which binds it together

Face to Face Interaction

Latour and the missing mass(es)• The masses are missing, or at

least diminished, in the online world

• Online interaction is easily disrupted: it tends towards drift, dissolution and disorder

Face to Face Interaction

Norms• As we saw in the tale of two

doors, social norms are one way in which human human interaction is structured

There are lots of examples

Social norms in action• Lining up for at parade

- change in paving

- position of other spectators (and marchers)

Social norms in action• Walking on a path

- paved paths and signs

- other walkers staying on path

Note that the cues are reinforcing behavior, not forcing it...

Social norms in action• Waiting in a queue

- poles and ribbons

- the other people in the queue

Social norms in action• Waiting for the light to change

- painted crosswalk, crossing lights

- crowd of people waiting

• Note that a person crossing against the light can trigger everyone to do likewise

Two claims• Face to face interaction is

supported by social norms

• And social norms are supported by visible cues, which include

- cues embedded in the environment

- and behavioral cues from people

It’s not all norms, though• Our collective behavior is also influenced by social forces

Social forces• Curiosity (and ‘meta-curiosity’)

Social forces• Triangulation

(when an object or event pulls strangers into conversation)

Social forces• Imitation

Social forces• Peer Pressure

Social forces• Competition

Social forces• Herding

Many social factors combine to order our collective behavior• voluntary adherence to norms

• accountability to others

• curiosity

• triangulation

• imitation

• peer pressure

• competition

• herding

A Design Approach

How do we apply these observations of face to face interaction to digital systems?

A Design Approach

A social proxy• A social proxy is a minimalist

graphical representations that make people and their activities more visible

An example for a multi-room text-based chat system. . .

A Design Approach

A social proxy• A conversation is represented by a circle

A Design Approach

A social proxy• People are represented by colored

A Design Approach

A social proxy• People in the ‘current’

conversation are shown inside the circle...

A Design Approach

A social proxy• People in other conversations are

shown outside the circle

A Design Approach

A social proxy• When a person is ‘active’ in the

chat (types, clicks or moves the mouse), their dot moves towards the center of the circle...

A Design Approach

A social proxy• So an active conversation in

which lots of people are speaking or listening looks something like this

A Design Approach

A social proxy• As a person is idle, their dot slowly drifts outward

(over the course of about twenty minutes)

A Design Approach

A social proxy• An inactive conversation (but one

in which people are still ‘around’) looks something like this

A Design Approach

The Babble system• The social proxy was

implemented as part of the Babble system, a persistent chat application

A Design Approach

The Babble system• The social proxy was

implemented as part of the Babble system, a persistent chat application

• There was also an asynchronousproxy that showed the last week of activity

Sleepzone

Morning in Europe

Morning in North Am.

SystemCrash

A Design Approach

The Babble system• Over the course of five years it

was deployed to about two dozen groups

• And it was generally quite successful:participants liked the proxy

“It makes me feel like people are in the room with me”

A Design Approach

Social phenomena in Babble• Something is happening

(curiosity)

A Design Approach

Social phenomena in Babble• Something is happening

over there (curiosity/herding)

A Design Approach

Social phenomena in Babble• Waylay: Orange is active and

using Babble, and they know that I know it (accountability)

A Design Approach

Social phenomena in Babble • Ice breaking

(curiosity/triangulation)

Nik: Interesting, why are some dots closer to the middle and some more towards middle/outer radius?

Bob: Hmmm... need more testing to find out!

Tom: Nik, it looks like an activity statement... the longer your idle the further from the center you are.

Nik: Thanks for the info Tom, I'm going to see if I move in closer as a result of typing this message...

Pat: as soon as u send a message u get closer to the center

A Design Approach

Social phenomena in Babble • Color choosing (triangulation)

Originally there was no way to choose a dot’s color; its color was determined by hashing the user’s nickname into the color table

A Design Approach

Wendy K

A Design Approach

Wendy K

A Design Approach

Wendy K

Wendy trying to be pink

A Design Approach

Wendy K

A Design Approach

Wendy K

Wendy pink pink pink pink

A Design Approach

• Users enjoyed this. Others would watch and make jokes and suggestions about what version of the nickname to try next

Wendy K

A Design Approach

• But then we made a mistake: we put in a menu item: “Options: Select Dot color”

It increased “ease of use” for users, but we lost a small but nice ritual.

Wendy K

A Design Approach

Summary• The Babble proxy was

easy to learn• Participants used it,

often in unexpected ways• And it seemed to be have

interesting social andexperiential aspects

Examples of Social Proxies

How widely applicable are social proxies?

Proxies for spoken conversation

Proxies for spoken conversation:Supporting audio conferencing

Proxies for spoken conversation: A design sketch

How it works• Dot moves into center when speaking,

slowly drifts out when silent

Proxies for spoken conversation:A design sketch

How it works• Dot moves into center when speaking,

slowly drifts out when silent• A dot’s user can signal various states

such as ‘I have a question’ (shown), ‘I’m on mute’, or ‘I can’t hear’

Proxies for spoken conversation:A design sketch

This proxy is interesting because- shows who has spoken recently

- provides a visual backchannel

- provides a resource for ‘going around the table’

Proxies for spoken conversation:An implementation

Rendezvous: A VoIP-based audio conferencing system at IBM• Participants arrayed around a ‘table’

• Those who are invited, but not present, are shown below

• ‘Speech bubbles’ indicate a signal coming in on that line

• Clicking shows a photo of the person, and right-clicking brings up a menu

Design by Tracee Wolf, IBM Research

Proxies for spoken conversation:An implementation

Observations• People like knowing who is speaking

(or making noise)

• Participants use the state of the proxy to decide when to actually call in

• Users make frequent use of the menu functions for a variety of purposes

Design by Tracee Wolf, IBM Research

Proxies for queues

“Your call is important to us.

Please remain on the line and your call will be answered in

the order in which it was received.”

Proxies for queues• An advance in state of the art! ->

“Your call is important to us.

Please remain on the line and your call will be answered in

the order in which it was received.”

Proxies for queues:A design sketch

How it works• A new dot joins the end of the

queue• Triangles indicate ‘assistants’• Colors show estimated wait time

• A more elaborate version for an online help site that includes a chat space for anyone in the queue

This proxy is interesting because• it provides feedback about the

collective state of the interaction (e.g. wait time, line speed)

• and could provide a framework for other interactions such as chat

Proxies for queues:An implementation

Chit Chat Club, an installation by Karrie Karahalios and colleagues• People sitting together in a room

can converse with someone who ‘logs into’ the physical avatar in the picture

• However, what to do about people who were waiting to log in next?

Design by Karrie Karahalios and colleagues, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Chit Chat Club, an installation by Karrie Karahalios and colleagues• So the interface for the remote

users included a queue proxy

Chit Chat Club, an installation by Karrie Karahalios and colleagues• So the interface for the remote

users included a queue proxy

• And it allowed people to chat with one another

Anecdotal observations• People talked quite a lot

• Some users got so involved in their conversations in the queue that they didn’t want to leave the queue when their turn to use the avatar came...

• Karahalios et al are working on another version that allows users to change places, etc. Design by Karrie Karahalios and colleagues,

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Proxies for auctions

Proxies for auctions:A design sketch

Design• Objects: Viewing, bidding, clock

• Dots: color means it was recently active

This proxy is interesting because• it tries to create an feeling of drama

• it illustrates the use of cumulative state

• it could provide the basis for visualizations of markets...

Proxies for buildings

Proxies for buildings:A design sketch

How it works• Everyone wears an active badge that

tracks their locations to the meter• People are shown on the map as

squares, and leave a trail of where they’ve been for the last 30 seconds

• However, users are not identified: the only information shown is whether

someone is an employee or visitor

Even without identifying people we can see patterns...

Proxies for buildings:A design sketch design sketch

Even without identifying people we can see patterns: meetings...

• However, users are not identified: the only information shown is whether someone is an employee or visitor

Even without identifying people we can see patterns: mail delivery...

Even without identifying people we can see patterns: ???

This proxy is interesting because• it shows that proxies are useful

for non-digital spaces

• it illustrates that much can be read even when people are anonymous...

• ...and that more can be read by those who know the background

Design Explorations

Social proxies more generally• The approach is very flexible

• I claim that you can design a social proxy for any online situation

Design Explorations

Some social proxy design ‘guidelines’• Everyone sees the same thing; no user-specific customization

• Provide a third person point of view

• Portray actions, not interpretation

• Support deceptive (aka polite) behavior

Summary and Closing Remarks

Systems can be designed to inhibitsocial behavior...

Systems can be designed to inhibitsocial behavior or to facilitate it

Social behavior is supported by norms and forces that depend on visible cues • in the physical environment

• and the behavior of other people

We can apply these ideas to designing digital systems• We can support collaboration

in digital systems by providing visible cues about the presence and activities of users and about the online situation/environmentthey are in

We can apply these ideas to designing digital systems• We can support collaboration

in digital systems by providing visible cues about the presence and activities of users and about the online situation/environmentthey are in

• The surprise is that this can be done very simply

Thank You!

And thanks to • those involved in the Babble project...

Erin Bradner, Jason Ellis, Brent Hailpern, Christine Halverson, Wendy Kellogg, Mark Laff, John Richards, David N. Smith, Cal Swart, Tracee Wolf

• ...to the Project for Public Spaces (http://www.pps.org) for many photos (as noted)

• ...to Karrie Karahalios (University of Illinois) for the Chit-Chat Club queue proxy

• ...to Tracee Wolf (IBM) for the Rendezvous proxy design • ... and to my colleagues at IBM for support and inspiration

For more information• snowfall@acm.org• http://www.visi.com/~snowfall/

designing systems that support social behavior

social normsthomas erickson

social rules

social meansand

watson research center

social perspectivea

social perspectivethe

web of social forces

disorder thomas erickson

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