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6.3.2010 by Flow    Comments ()            follow
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Social Media's impact on Design

Social Media's impact on Design

Since quite a while now are ad budgets shifting from traditional media to social networking sites or 'social media', widely changing the media landscape. This shift obviously impacts media planning and strategy but I wonder about the future relevance for online-creatives like me, designers in particular?

The recent buzz about Buzz overshadowed a much smaller but more intriguing conversation about a video-chat web site called ChatRoulette. It's really just a couple web cam windows on a page. But it's this simplicity that makes it attractive to users. It looks unpolished, unused and unadvertised. Especially the latter will earn trust from users (at least in the beginning). The design works very well.

The fist point to make on social media's impact on design is that the purpose of networking sites is to micro target the audience exactly reflecting users' preferences and interests. Designs can implement these aspects i.e. displaying a user's personalized colour and background preferences on a page (like on Twitter, BBC or Yahoo). This works well in branded environments. Interactive design that can be dynamically modified enhance the perception of taking a stake in the brand a user engages with.

Secondly. Technology is central to social media and its possibilities. Designers have to have at least a basic understanding of technological possibilities in order to implement them into a user-friendly user interface (i.e. the floating panels on Facebook where a user can move content as they wish).

Coming back to ChatRoulette. My third and most important point is that social networking sites are experienced as private spaces by many users. Display advertisements very often look intrusive and aren't part of the dialogue. To be heard the advertiser should lead the dialogue. For design it means the LESS it looks like an ad (the more it blends in with the content), the higher the chances a user perceives it as part of that dialogue rather than a corporate message.

BBH points out that trust in our online 'friends' is on decline and advertisers' revenues with it. Designers will have to address users' aspirations and wants very flexibly in future or else look for new jobs. Social media will guide the way.

I'd love to know your thoughts. Please leave a comment below.



Social Media Explained


6.3.2010 by Flow

Comments

Daniel Vaczi on 27.2.2010

Hi Flow,

Thanks for your post. If you don't m ind, i'm going to disagree with you on some points. :)

"ad budgets shifting from traditional media to social networking sites or 'social media'"

I agree with this statement. However, i would have chosen a different word for "shifting". I think it is not shifting, rather companies/marketiers increasingly understand the concept, importance and effectiveness of integrated marketing approach. This is why they incorporate other channels into their marketing plan.


"To be heard the advertiser should lead the dialogue."

It would be more effective, no doubt, BUT you need resource to implement this. It is far quicker and requires to less resource to design a display ad or run a PPC campaign than concentrating on the dialogue. And at the and of the day it comes down to ROI.


"For design it means the LESS it looks like an ad (the more it blends in with the content), the higher the chances a user perceives it as part of that dialogue rather than a corporate message."

If you publish a commercial text/message, you have to state that it is intended to be commercial. If you are an SME, you can get away with this. However, large companies understand the possible legal consequences.