This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

No matter what type of web site or application you’re building, social interaction among the people who use it will be key to its success. They will talk about it, invite their friends, complain, sing its high praises, and dissect it in countless ways. With the right design strategy you can use this social interaction to get people signing up, coming back regularly, and bringing others into the fold. With tons of examples from real-world interfaces and a touch of the underlying social psychology theory, Joshua Porter shows you how to design your next great social web application.

Inside, you’ll discover:
• The real reasons why people participate online and the psychology behind them
• The Usage Lifecycle—or how people use your web application over time
• How to get people past that trickiest of hurdles: sign-up
• What to do when you’ve launched a web application and nobody is using it
• How to analyze the effectiveness of your application screens and flows
• How to grow your social web application from zero users to 1000—and beyond

Designing for the social web is about much more than adding features. It’s about embracing the social interaction of the people who make you successful—and then designing smartly to encourage it.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 20 Ratings

Great overview of how to design a Social Web site - 2009-01-13
Reviewer Rating:
Having only used Social sites and not having been active in designing them, this book was eye opening for me. It summed up some ideas, I was not familiar with and gave me some insight on how to pursue the design of a Social web.

I found it a nice overall view of
* "somethings to do" and "somethings not to do"
* along with the structure of how to do it
* as well as how to see if I was successful.

It was chock full of examples as well.

I felt this book had to be a challenge to research for and write as the references needed to be current to be most useful and for me they were.

Thanks for an easy to read book and a quick overview of a subject that is all to pertinent to designers today.

What better way to sum up a book then by providing it's own

Table of Contents

The rise of the Social Web
* The Amazon effect
* The social web
A framework for social web design
* The AOF method (Activity, Objects, Features)
* Focus on the primary activity
* Identify your social objects
* Choose a core feature set
Authentic conversations
* The growing Alienation
* What could it look like
* The value of Authentic conversations
* Make the commitment to authentic conversations
* Get attention by focusing on a specific community
* Keep attention by reacting positively to negative feedback
Design for Sign up
* What are they thinking
* The sign up hurdle
* Keep it Simple the Journalism Technique
* Reduce Sign up Friction
Design for On-going participation
* Why do people participate
* Enable identity management
* Emphasize the person's uniqueness
* Leverage Reciprocity
* Allow for Reputation
* Promote a sense of Efficacy
* Promote a sense of Control
* Confer Ownership
* Show desired behavior
* Attachment to a group
Design for Collective Intelligence
* Complex adaptive systems
* Initial Action
* Aggregate Display
* Feedback
* Leverage points
Design for Sharing
* Two types of Sharing
* The Activity of Sharing
The Funnel Analysis
* The funnel view
* The analysis
* Issues to Watch for
* Meaningful Metrics

Fast intro on designing social web sites and applications - 2009-06-03
Reviewer Rating:
This book didn't teach me a whole lot of new things about social media. The ideas and design principles in this book can be read from various blogs from a last couple of years. What the book does nicely is that it collects these things together in single covers although it doesn't get very deep into them. The last chapter about funnel analysis was very interesting but I would've liked to get more details.

It is quite short but very well and nicely written for my tastes which made me read it in just one night. Usually it takes me months to read books from the web industry. Web design books are always very interesting but not very exiting and I get bored and swap from book to another.

Recommended introduction for those that are just beginning to work on social web sites and applications or those that needed a refresh. Or to those that don't have the time to read anything longer...

Deluxe Design - 2009-05-25
Reviewer Rating:
This is a terrific book on a subject that is of increasing importance to those heavily involved with web properties of any kind.

Joshua Porter has written a very thoughtful, well organized, and beautifully illustrated tutorial on how to best utilize the benefits of Web 2.0. Many have written about 2.0 and the profound impact it is having on the web (and our lives). Porter has brilliantly focused on the design elements that are so important to making the interactive world of Web 2.0 come alive for users.

I am designing a web based community scheduled to launch July 1. I am using this book as my template to assure that the features of the community are well understood and appreciated by members. For me, this book is a treasure trove of good ideas.

Straight forward, high-level view on what should go into a social website - 2009-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
Designing for the Social Web is a short read, probably about 2-3 hours. The author breaks down the design of a site in terms of life-cycle based on user relationship... starting with users who are unaware of your site, and progressing to sites with a passionate user base. Within, he gives a very high level (no code, pseudo-code or even structured solution outlines) look at how an organization can meet the needs of their users, while still aiming at creating that wide and passionate user base.

The book contains a number of simple diagrams illustrating the author's points. The subject matter is quite broad and rather general, and while I didn't expect the world based on the book's size, I had hoped for more specific examples, deeper inspection of topics, and perhaps some supporting data, rather than isolated example cases.

Overall, I liked the book as it did contain some useful information. However, I often found myself reading something and looking for more than a glossed over discussion of the subject.

A mind-opener! - 2009-10-27
Reviewer Rating:
This book was a great mind-opener; it brings to the reader's attention many of the elements that one overlooks when using websites. Note that this book will not teach you HTML or CSS; it deals more with psychology and usability. It's not a lengthy book and it's a joy to read. If you want your web designs to be "used" rather than "looked at", you will benefit immensely from this book.

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