Social Design Reading List

[Updated January 2019] I keep an ongoing list of books and articles (google doc) related to the Social interface space. As we learn more about human behavior in online spaces, it’s important to stay informed as we design these spaces. Who knew in 2008 that we would be dealing with fake news and bots in our social interactions in 2016 & 2017? Looking back, we can see some authors calling out warnings, but the landscape was wide open and we all had projects to complete. Now, in 2019, we can look back and see where mistakes were made, how ethics questions should have been and continue to need to be addressed. We can learn from psychology and group behavior and see where we can learn about the consequences of our design and business decisions earlier rather than when it’s too late.

Books

Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience, 2nd Edition; by Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone

Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web; by Paul Adams

Designing for the Social Web; by Joshua Porter

Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities; by Amy Jo Kim

Building Web Reputation Systems; by Randy Farmer and Bryce Glass

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, by Danah Boyd, PhD

Anti-social media, by Siva Vaidhyanathan

The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life, by Lee Humphreys

General Social Articles

The Social Strategy Canvas
https://medium.com/tangible-ux/the-social-strategy-canvas-1222b9a002fb

Social Strategy Canvas worksheets
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/106pQosmhQv_3AvfAnRevrMWLM1iW0bVz

Using Mapping to Scope a System (scoping the realm of “social”)
https://medium.com/tangible-ux/using-mapping-to-scope-a-system-b467564a80e2

Chasing the Ephemeral
https://medium.com/tangible-ux/chasing-the-ephemeral-d559e31db49f

Welcome Area
https://www.emdezine.com/welcome-area/

Social Objects: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know!
https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2007/12/31/social-objects-for-beginners/

Power Law of Participation
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/power_law_of_pa.html

Where are you on the Social Media Participation Ladder?
http://marketance.com/where-are-you-on-the-social-media-participation-ladder/

Beyond Player Types: Kim’s Social Action Matrix
http://amyjokim.com/blog/2014/02/28/beyond-player-types-kims-social-action-matrix/

Cargo Cults; Atlas Obscura
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cargo-cults-tanna

Identity

Thoughts about Identity, Privacy and Moderation in the Age of Fake News and Emboldened Bad Behavior
https://medium.com/tangible-ux/thoughts-about-identity-privacy-and-moderation-in-the-age-of-fake-news-and-emboldened-bad-behavior-a8d9c9be5209

The Identity Spectrum
https://identitywoman.net/the-identity-spectrum

Who Are You, Really? Activists Fight For Pseudonyms
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140879480/who-are-you-really-activists-fight-for-pseudonyms

The Real Name Fallacy
https://blog.coralproject.net/the-real-name-fallacy/#0.1_huang_effect_2016

Online Anonymity, The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
https://harrytdyer.com/2017/01/04/online-anonymity-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

My Name is
Violet Blue:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111001151949/my.nameis.me/215/violet-blue/

Corey Doctorow:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111008061634/http://my.nameis.me/393/cory-doctorow/

Clay Shirky:
http://my.nameis.me/624/clay-shirky-2/

Online identity: is authenticity or anonymity more important?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymity

Academic papers about online commenting
https://community.coralproject.net/t/interesting-academic-papers-about-comment-sections/29

How to Disappear Online
http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2013/12/12/how-to-disappear-online/

Who you are versus who you present yourself to be online
https://www.emdezine.com/who-you-are-versus-who-you-present-yourself-to-be-online/

Is your online identity vulnerable to doxing?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/12/03/is-your-online-identity-vulnerable-to-doxing/#555f43d57e73

Who is that? The Study of Anonymity and Behavior
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/who-is-that-the-study-of-anonymity-and-behavior

Relationships & Community

Neighborhoods and Subcultures in Social Design
https://www.emdezine.com/neighborhoods-and-subcultures-in-social-design/

Your Internet Friends Are Real
https://newrepublic.com/article/121183/your-internet-friends-are-real-defense-online-intimacy

The Social Graph – Problems with Portability
http://www.socialtechnologyreview.com/articles/social-graph-problems-portability

Friends, Friendsters and the Top 8: Writing Community Into Being
http://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1418/1336

Interesting conversation  about asymmetrical social graph on Quora
https://www.quora.com/Will-the-future-of-social-graph-relationships-be-asymmetric-following-e-g-Quora-Twitter-or-symmetric-friending-e-g-Facebook

“The Linux of social media”—How LiveJournal pioneered (then lost) blogging
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/the-linux-of-social-media-how-livejournal-pioneered-then-lost-web-blogging/

‘People You May Know:’ A Controversial Facebook Feature’s 10-Year History
https://gizmodo.com/people-you-may-know-a-controversial-facebook-features-1827981959

Ratings & Reviews

MarketingSherpa – https://www.marketingsherpa.com/
Source for many marketing surveys specifically looking at ratings and reviews

Dramatic New Data on How User Reviews Influence Purchasing Decisions
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/dramatic-new-data-on-how

Adding Customer Reviews Increases Conversions — Dramatically
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/adding-customer-reviews-increases-conversions

MarketingSherpa Publishes 2007 Ecommerce Benchmark Guide: 223 New Charts, Tables & Heatmaps to Help Improve Online Sales
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/press-release/223-new-charts-tables-heatmaps

Edelman Trust Barometer
https://www.edelman.com/trust2017/

Edelman Earned Brand
https://www.edelman.com/earned-brand-2016

Why Product Reviews Can Drive Group Buying Success for Retailers
https://mashable.com/2010/10/01/group-buying-product-reviews/#fnryxn_YYiqX

How Online Reviews Influence Sales
http://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/online-reviews/

Reputation & Game Thinking

Entice Me Back; How Core Loops Drive Re-engagement
http://amyjokim.com/blog/2014/05/27/entice-me-back-how-core-loops-drive-re-engagement/

Loops and Arcs
http://www.lostgarden.com/2012/04/loops-and-arcs.html

7 Gamification Myths Debunked
https://medium.com/@amyjokim/7-gamification-myths-debunked-5cfcd4f26a2f

Kiva President On The Next 5 Years And Why Zynga Is Their Biggest Rival (TCTV)
https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/kiva-ceo-on-the-next-5-years-and-why-zynga-is-their-biggest-rival-tctv/

Some Obvious Things About Internet Reputation Systems
http://tomslee.net/2013/09/some-obvious-things-about-internet-reputation-systems.html

Web Reputation Systems in the Real World
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140619171137-8919-web-reputation-systems-and-the-real-world

Reading List from 2008

(some links may be dead, I haven’t checked them all in awhile)

Identity

Sign In – Registration – Forms

Recommendations

Social Networks

Relationships

Misc