Comments on: First Impressions and Last Logins http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/ digital anthropologist Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:31:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: angelo http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/comment-page-1/#comment-920 angelo Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:52:03 +0000 http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/#comment-920 very interesting topic, you've got going on here - you're right about Flickr's interface and its ability to attract right off the bat..i personally love it! very interesting topic, you’ve got going on here – you’re right about Flickr’s interface and its ability to attract right off the bat..i personally love it!

]]> By: PunkToad http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/comment-page-1/#comment-917 PunkToad Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:39:48 +0000 http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/#comment-917 Flickr has the best interface of all time, it's a game. Flickr has the best interface of all time, it’s a game.

]]> By: Carl http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/comment-page-1/#comment-814 Carl Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:08:59 +0000 http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/#comment-814 I don't have any silver bullets for solving the problem of dropoff, but this directly jives with the bit of "The Tipping Point" which I read (for the first time, yes, I'm behind this particular curve). Namely: "Stickiness". One of the major forces in deciding whether a trend will survive / epidemic will spread, is whether the thing is "sticky". All you need is the proper whizzbang, noticeable, memorable widget, and you're golden. The nature of the widget, though, eludes most (all) of us. It might be the content in Flickr; or the bot that Tarek talks about, or just the name of the site, or anything, really. No-one knows. What appears to be the case though to me is: People tend to know it when they see it. And yes, emptiness: NAH. I don’t have any silver bullets for solving the problem of dropoff, but this directly jives with the bit of “The Tipping Point” which I read (for the first time, yes, I’m behind this particular curve). Namely: “Stickiness”. One of the major forces in deciding whether a trend will survive / epidemic will spread, is whether the thing is “sticky”. All you need is the proper whizzbang, noticeable, memorable widget, and you’re golden. The nature of the widget, though, eludes most (all) of us. It might be the content in Flickr; or the bot that Tarek talks about, or just the name of the site, or anything, really. No-one knows. What appears to be the case though to me is: People tend to know it when they see it. And yes, emptiness: NAH.

]]> By: Ed http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/comment-page-1/#comment-813 Ed Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:45:02 +0000 http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/#comment-813 We ran into a similar problem at the last startup I worked for. Getting users to convert was always an issue, no matter how much we tweaked that first-time user experience. What really made a difference, though, was finding what the ideal use cases were and marketing to those users who might benefit from those applications. In the end, it totally changed our perspective as to what our service did. Unfortunately, it also told us that we might not be as mainstream as we had hoped the product would be, either. C'est la vie. We ran into a similar problem at the last startup I worked for. Getting users to convert was always an issue, no matter how much we tweaked that first-time user experience. What really made a difference, though, was finding what the ideal use cases were and marketing to those users who might benefit from those applications. In the end, it totally changed our perspective as to what our service did.

Unfortunately, it also told us that we might not be as mainstream as we had hoped the product would be, either.

C’est la vie.

]]> By: Tarek http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/comment-page-1/#comment-812 Tarek Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:35:26 +0000 http://arielwaldman.com/2009/04/25/first-impressions-and-last-logins/#comment-812 You know - I should not say that but ... - I have a similar problem in a location based social service I am creating called baralbait.com. It's still in alpha but I've noticed that most the people who used it got confused and didn't really know what to do there. And yes, may be the emptiness is the reason here. I think one solution for that, is to have a bot or virtual user on your service and let him/her be friend of anybody joins it. And that bot can do some actions on the site every now and then in order to displaying example content to them. You know – I should not say that but … – I have a similar problem in a location based social service I am creating called baralbait.com. It’s still in alpha but I’ve noticed that most the people who used it got confused and didn’t really know what to do there. And yes, may be the emptiness is the reason here.

I think one solution for that, is to have a bot or virtual user on your service and let him/her be friend of anybody joins it. And that bot can do some actions on the site every now and then in order to displaying example content to them.

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