Posted By
Robin Stevens on 10/05/2009
Ed: This post is part of White Horse’s occasional series of slogs (speed blogs). Slogging—a concept we created here at
White Horse—riffs on improv comedy concepts to create interactive writing activities. These short games bore fruit with tons of great ideas. More details are here.
The first activity we did was “Quantity over Quality”—the idea was to write as many words as possible in just a few minutes.
Coherence was optional. The winner of this activity was strictly determined by word count.
What will the Internet be like in 2010?
In 2010 more Web sites will be depending on user generated content. We already know this is true in the consumer arena—while critics lament the change from serious news
reporting, citizen journalists are already at work writing about their neighborhoods, their communities, their friends, and their own pecadillos. Next year, SERIOUS web sites will also be depending more on this type of content. In the b2b world in particular, we need to look at the kind of information that customers are interested in sharing with one another—rather than the kind of information that we want them to want.
There’s no mystery to laying out a strategy for this kind of work. There may be new forums and information formats, but when you are committed to user-centered design and you wonder where to start with developing out a new strategy or new content for your site, you just start with your customers! Cast a broad net at the beginning—a well-crafted survey will do. Then move to some customer interviews. Your investment in the research should be commensurate with the amount of money you’d like to invest in your project. Plan to allocate at least 10% of your budget in talking to
your customers. They’ll point you in the right direction right up front and they’ll help you with risk mitigation by providing clues right up at the front of your process about what they would like to find.
Write your plan for user generated content and then start to execute. Manage it like any other program and you’ll watch the pieces and return fall right into place.
Tags: blogs, Web communities, social networks
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