Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jenny Preece is Professor and Chair of Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she teaches online communities and human-computer interaction. Prior to coming to the USA she chaired the first distance education course at the Open University in the UK. She has authored a leading text on Human-Computer Interaction and numerous other publications.

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The purpose of the book is to set up a framework for discussions on social and technical issues of online communities. Designing usability and supporting sociability lays a solid foundation on which online communities can grow and thrive. Intended for both students and computer professionals, the book addresses the development of new online communities as well as the improvement of existing ones. It is divided into two parts - Getting Acquainted with Online Communities and Developing Online Communities - along with a preface and a concluding chapter which explores the future of online communities. For sample chapters and other resources, please check out the web site for the book at www.ifsm.umbc.edu/onlinecommunities.

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The purpose of the book is to set up a framework for discussions on social and technical issues of online communities. Designing usability and supporting sociability lays a solid foundation on which online communities can grow and thrive. Intended for both students and computer professionals, the book addresses the development of new online communities as well as the improvement of existing ones. It is divided into two parts - Getting Acquainted with Online Communities and Developing Online Communities - along with a preface and a concluding chapter which explores the future of online communities. For sample chapters and other resources, please check out the web site for the book at www.ifsm.umbc.edu/onlinecommunities.

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Chapter 2 - Community Tours

People join communities to satisfy needs: to develop new friendships, discuss a new interest, debate about politics, get information, share their knowledge, receive empathy from like-minded people, get support to deal with a problem. There are many reasons for joining online communities, and strong relationships may develop over many months, as occurs in some health support groups. Other relationships are short-lived, shallow, or almost nonexistent in online auction interactions.

Initially, people are attracted to a community by what it projects outwardly about itself. Its name, description on a Website [Box 0], or a statement of purpose help potential participants judge whether it is likely to meet their needs and is worth joining. The policies that direct behaviour in the community influence its character by guiding how people communicate. By clearly indicating a community's purpose, developers establish a focus that will influence who joins the community. Subsequently, guided by what people do and what attracts them to return to the community, developers can help to develop the community to continue to meet the needs of its participants. Community development, then, is a continuous process of evolution.

People are the key to a thriving online community. Obvious as this may sound, the importance of drawing people into the community and encouraging them to participate and keep coming back can not be overemphasized. Without people, there is no community. The ebb and flow of messages expressing new ideas, comments, reactions, jokes, reflections, suggestions keeps the community engaged and draws new people, as well as encouraging others to return. Compare Web pages, which are a useful community resource; but the information may not change or change infrequently, and is not personal. Once read, people look for new information.

Communities offer new information, often accompanied by personal anecdotes that make compelling reading. Characters emerge, and relationships form to shape the community. Special roles may also develop, such as an expert, a provocateur, the social conscience, a moderator or mediator, along with various characters.

Developers can not and should not attempt to control social interaction; but they can and should support desirable social interaction. For example, policies that call for civility will help reduce aggression. By setting up policies from the outset, developers can influence how a community evolves. Some communities have a manifesto set outlining expected behaviour of members; others are much more casual. Just as in face-to-face communities, being confronted with a list of do's and don'ts can deter people from joining. Conversely, a community with no rules can be a wild and unpleasant place. Achieving a balance is important, particularly for a new community (see chapter 3). As the community evolves, it can take over its own governance.

Just as the architecture of a house is immediately related to how its inhabitants live (cooking, serving meals, or supervising children can be a pleasure or a nightmare depending on the facilities available), the functionality provided by software and the ease with which users can make the software do what they want - its usability - strongly impact user activities. Variations between the different kinds of software can be significant, making the selection of appropriate important. Interactions on a bulletin board are different from those in a MOO or chat room. Online communities serve many purposes, but the support of information exchange and communication are particularly important. Software must be designed so that users can do their tasks rapidly and accurately. They must be able to learn to use the software to retain the skills they acquire. Some communities will be more concerned with empathetic communication, others with rapid chat, still others with detailed technical descriptions. Developers can make a major contribution to online communities by recognizing the characteristics of different tasks and ensuring that software is designed to support them (see chapter 4).

The remainder of this chapter takes readers on a tour of online communities from three domains: health, education, and e-commerce. It identifies examples of sociability (e.g., indications of the community's purpose, the people who participate, and policies that guide social interaction) and usability (e.g., software features that support users' tasks). This tour will introduce sociability support and usability design in a variety of online communities. Readers with limited experience of online communities, in particular, will benefit from this material. Later chapters (particularly Chapters 3 and 4) build systematically on the concepts identified in this tour.