
But it's time. And the first challenge was to figure out a process that would allow us to get to a good solution, quickly. Here's what we did:
Step 1: Card Sorting Prep
- Group 1: sort the cards as if LJ was a social networking service
- Group 2: sort the cards as if LJ was a blogging service
- Group 3: sort the cards for the new user, who is familiar with competing services, but unfamiliar with LJ
- Group 4: sort the cards for the existing power user, optimizing around frequent tasks
Step 2: Buy Donuts and Red Bull
The meeting was Wednesday morning. I needed everyone awake. Hence Red Bull and Donuts from Rudy's Donut House. They are wolrd famous. How could I refuse?!
Step 3: Get Everyone Talking and Collaborating
Here's
It took about 90 minutes. Good progress was made. Each team grouped the cards according to the point of view they were representing. At the end of the meeting, some consistent themes emerged.
So what were the recurring patterns?
Me, My Friends, and Everyone Else. The idea of ownership was very strong. Me and my content. My Friends content, and Everyone Else's content. This came up in ALL the groups. The journal space and scrapbook space was not always combined into the same group, but they were usually within close proximity at very least.
The Friends feature exposed something interesting. Every group put the Friends cards together, however their reasons for doing so varied. Some saw it as discovery, others felt it was a privacy setting. This attitude seemed to vary by whether or not the user had friends already, or if they were still adding friends.
The importance of discovery and exploration was huge. Most groups had this at a high level.
And there were lots of other things that I'm still studying. Some of them obvious. Some, not so obvious. I'll write more when I learn more. And I'll talk more about our launch plan.