Epidemiologists, who study viruses, measure two key things (among many others) to give them a sense of how a virus is spreading and behaving. Today we will learn the first one:
Incidence Rate
When we compare digital viruses to actual viruses in nature, it may seem weird to discuss the feelings our “virus” gives people. Viruses don’t have emotions! No, but they do hijack the natural behaviour of the organisms they infect. So today we learn about:
Viral Emotions
In real life, like in nature, if your virus can’t adapt to its environment it will not survive as long. You can design that characteristic into your creations so it will change as it spreads. So today we will learn about:
Designing Adaptability
One part of virality that I rarely see anyone discussing is how the format of the viral thing, and how that changes the way it spreads. The way something spreads also effects the number of people it can reach, so today we will learn about:
Transmission & K-Factor
If you want something to be really contagious, ideally it should jump from person to person as fast as possible. In product design, the time it takes to download something and “infect” the next person is called:
Viral Cycle
Every day this week we are going to learn something about the ingredients that make one design more viral than another. But what do we mean by “viral”? Well, that’s actually the first lesson:
The Difference Between Virality and Popularity
As I sit here writing this, I have a really bad sunburn. Looking back at my “last day of vacation” behaviour, I should have expected this. What I didn’t expect was to fix it with UX.
There are almost always 10 different ways to create a certain behaviour. That means everything your users do could be caused by something other than what you intuitively think.
I often discuss the fact that UX is not a matter of opinion. Typically I am referring to testing and results, but this is also true in a more subtle way: the problems you have chosen to attack in the first place. Are they really problems? Or are they just opinions?
There is ongoing discussion in the design industry about what, exactly, is the difference between “UX” and “Interaction design” and all the other related sub-disciplines.
