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Title:
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HEURISTICS FOR SUPPORTING SOCIAL INTERACTION IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES |
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Author(s):
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Sanna Malinen |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8924-93-5 |
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Editors:
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Pedro Isaías, Bebo White and Miguel Baptista Nunes |
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Year:
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2009 |
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Edition:
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1 |
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Keywords:
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Online community, motivation, online identity, design |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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327 |
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Last Page:
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334 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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The success of online communities and social networking sites leans heavily on users activity and contributions, and
thus it is important to understand how to encourage them to contribute and interact with others. This paper presents eight
heuristics for evaluating and designing social internet services. The factors that motivate users of online communities are
widely discussed in the literature. This study aims to utilize the information about user motivation and social interaction
in the practical design of online communities and social networking sites. Twelve user interviews were carried out with
online community members to investigate the user motivation and user experience. This paper presents four main
motivations for participation in and contribution to online communities, and discusses their applicability in design.
Heuristic evaluation is the most popular method for inspecting usability and identifying usability problems in order to pay
attention to them through an iterative process. This study provides eight heuristics for evaluating how the motivating
factors are taken into account in online services, and for improving social interaction through the design of a user
interface. The heuristics aim to clarify what motivates users, how a sense of community is created, and how design
elements can support versatile user motivations. |
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