Launching Usercard:
The Part with Screenshots of Ugly Links
3 Modes of Social Engagement
In the first part of Launching Usercard, I spat on the social network icon parade. This post explores the social engagement system that Usercard aims to improve.
Among all social network users, I’m seeing three modes of engagement co-existing as a self-sustaining system: from most passive to most active, they are discovery, search, and share. None of these modes are mutually exclusive.
Discovery
Users in the discovery mode are behaving the most passively, open to new engagements and waiting for the next offensive meme or breaking news tweet to slap them across the face. They are explorers who embrace the infinite scroll. They are an audience more malleable than not.
Example: Playing a Spotify radio station curated by genre or mood.
Search
Users in search mode are after something more specific; they have queries, curiosities, and seek information. These users have the social platform working for them to find that information. They understand the strengths of the networks and use them to their advantage.
Example: Searching for an artist on Spotify to find a specific track, collected works, or biography.
Share
Users in share mode are the whole point of social networking because they are the communicators. Their messaging ranges from private temporary texts to national political campaigns and connects all human relationships from familial to professional to other.
Example: Artists releasing new albums on Spotify, users collaborating on playlists, and friends exchanging favorite tracks.
Social networks are communication powerhouses because the Discover, Search, and Share modes offer a role for everyone. However, these modes don’t apply across networks uniformly. I share photos on Instagram frequently but only read on Twitter. I send Snapchat stories to my friends but only use Facebook as a human finder. Different networks serve different purposes, so the 3 Mode System varies. This is a fair game.
However, what happens when the system wants to cross or even govern multiple networks? What happens when the thing we’re discovering, searching, and sharing is not content in contained spaces, but the user profiles themselves? Well, we get things like this:
and this:
and this from the Pop Queen of the World:
and these:
Simply put, the current system is ugly and inefficient.
System Failure
This looks like a major system failure. Entities with multiple online identities have no choice but to assault audiences with blocks of links and icons.
I’m not a UI/UX designer, but I am a power user of things for which those designers design, and as someone who appreciates a good experience, I find so much of the current system to be horrendous. It just doesn’t work — because if it did, we’d be seeing more uniform methods. There is so much missed opportunity to maximize multi-platform visibility!
I yearn for us, social people of the Internet, to be better. We cannot discover, search, and share profiles the same way we do with content. The system of username engagement requires a more reliable approach, which is why I am introducing Usercard. More soon.
TL;DR Engaging with social content is functionally context sensitive, but the system fails to discover, search, and share profile identities with equal efficiency.
Coming up next
This is Part 2 of a TBD-Part mission statement. Next, I’ll show you usernames before and after Usercard. To see where all of this is going, check out usercard.org.
