Chi '11
By:
Fatih Kursat Ozenc, and Shelly Farnham.
- Fatih Kursat Ozenc is at Carnegie Mellon and also holds a PhD in Interaction Design.
- Shelly Farnham is currently a researcher at Microsoft Research. She also holds a PhD from the University of Washington.
Hypothesis
This paper looks at ways to improve users ability to fully use social networking sites by allowing to organise their online world more thoroughly based on life "modes" so as to maximise their use.
Methods
The researchers gathered more data for their idea by selected 16 participants after a thorough screening and asked them to model their lives using a colour scheme with focus on method of communication with each person and time spent with them.
Results
The vast majority of participants drew their lives as a social meme map while a few used the timeline method. They discovered that communication channels depended heavily on closeness to a person in areas of ones life. The closer a person was the more means of communication were used. There was also a level of compartmentalisation that was noticed and there was a relation between the level of compartmentalisation and the age, personality and culture of the user.
Contents
This paper attempted to figure out a way to allow people to manage, organise and compartmentalise their lives on social networking sites. Based on their research they were able to come up with a method that they felt worked pretty well.
Discussion
The conclusion of their research seems an awful lot like what Facebook implemented recently with their circles, and the ability to select how close on is to each friend. I'm unsure whether Facebook used this as an idea, however their implementation shows the obvious fact that this research was correct, and thus has been verified as such.
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