Literature Review: A Study of Social Media UX

In our quest to further our understanding of UX design, we cannot ignore the importance of looking at scholarly studies to derive fundamental theories and conceptual frameworks to support our work. In this review, we shall be taking a look at 2 papers pertaining to the design of Social Media UX. By conducting this literature review, we hope to be able to draw out some general theories that designers can apply and test in their own specific environments.

Paper 1

Presenting social media information on mobile devices using multiple contexts (Tan and Goh, 2015)

This paper discusses how to improve user satisfaction when large amounts of social media information are presented on a small device. Using a tourist app as an example, the paper discusses the design of an app that helps tourists who frequently use social media information for tour planning, information comparing, information validating and information sharing. The researchers then conducted a user evaluation study and adopted four types of social media information (recommendations, events, friends and media elements) to investigate users’ preferred ways of organising different types of social media information based on multiple contexts.

The reason why we chose this paper, is because it covers an important intersection of mobile and social media UX design. Both of which, have become ubiquitous and a quintessential part of our everyday lives. The findings presented in this study help us understand how to organise and design tourism related social media information on mobile devices. While these theories may not be universally applicable across other domains, it provides a good starting point for designers of social media based mobile apps, and is a worthwhile read.

Paper 2

Game Design for Social Networks: Interaction Design for Playful Dispositions (Järvinen, 2009)

In this paper, the author argues that the techniques and methods of designing game mechanics can be interwoven into interaction design and service design tasks. Additionally, he posits that the study of the motivations and emotional dispositions of games and social media usage can be used to identify game mechanics that tap into such user practices. Using Facebook games as case studies, the author extracts a set of design principles, proposing the following framework to leverage on the inherent sociability, spontaneity, narrativity, and playfulness of online social networks for game design.

The reason why we chose this paper, is because it ties in well with our current research interests in Gamification, and serves to highlight the unique design considerations for social network games as opposed to regular game design. All in all, while the framework put forth in this paper has yet to be formally validated, many pertinent points have been brought up by the author and it makes an interesting read. We highly recommend researchers who are keen to further their understanding in social media game design to give this short paper a quick read.

Conclusion

To conclude, on our journey to further our understanding of UX design, we should not overlook the importance of scholarly studies that can provide us with guidance and lend credence to our work. As social media continues to increasingly occupy a large portion of our everyday lives, designers need to be more cognisant of the design considerations related to the design of social media applications.

The 2 papers that we have reviewed today cover different aspects of social media UX design. The first paper talks about the organization of social media information on mobile devices, while the second paper delves into the unique design considerations when designing games specifically for social networks. Both papers provide insightful analysis in their subject domain, and are highly recommended reads for any designer of social media applications.