1. Report for Studio Workshop II
Story Network
by
Using Gossip Mechanism
MDes Interaction Design,
School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Team Purple :
XIE Binhuan
Larissa Rena
QIU Shi
Cedric Sam
2012 . 01. - 05
1

2. 1 Contents 2
2 Background
Project Brief
03
04
basic understanding of SNS 05
Why Do People Use SNS 05
Stories are the Substance 05
Using Current SNS 05
Problems with Current SNS 05
Background
Interaction in Current SNS 06
3 Opportunity 07
4 Concept Proposal
Story Network
08
09
Inspired by Gossip Mechanism 10
1 Project Brief
Proposed Interaction 11
2 basic understanding of SNS & Stories
System Diagram 16 2.1 Why Do People Use SNS
Topic Clustering 17 2.2 Stories are the Substance
5
2.3 Using Current SNS
Prototyping 18 2.4 Problems with Current SNS
Action Flow 19 3 Interaction in Current SNS
Wireframes 21
Interface 22
Interactive Prototype 30
6 Further Considerations
User Control
31
32
SWOT Analysis 33
7 Conclusion 34
2
8 Reflection 35
3

3. 2-1 Project Brief 2-2 basic understanding of SNS
Why Do People Use SNS?
We stepped back and questioned why people allow people to bridge the gap of time and
use SNS in the first place. The reason is similar space. People can talk to one another anytime
to why people use other existing communica- and anywhere, as long as they are connected to
tion tools. As a social being, one of human basic the Internet.
needs is to engage with others. SNS, however,
Stories are the Substance
This project was a collaboration with No matter what communication tools are being
used, people engage with one another through
to politics. The strongest kind is when people
share personal stories. That way they can
Tencent ISUX (Internet Services User exchange of stories. They talk about anything understand each other better and create a closer
that interests both parties, from today’s weather emotional bond.
Experience). In the theme of emotion
expression, we were asked to propose
a novel way to help people better ex-
press their emotions and connect with Using Current SNS
others through the use of Social Net- On current SNS, people’s connections are Current SNS already provide a platform for shar-
mainly defined by relationships. People relate to ing. On top of it, people can even share more
working Services (SNS). others by declaring oneself as a friend (e.g. Fa- content with more people, more often and more
cebook, RenRen), follower (e.g. Twitter, Weibo), quickly [The New York Times Insights. 2011. The
or part of a customized cluster (e.g. Google+). Psychology of Sharing.]. Nevertheless, the result
The relationships serve as the base for people to is an everflowing stream of information.
share stories with.
X
Problems with Current SNS
Since a large quantity of stories are spread on in the story, he/she may interact further with the
current SNS, each story has a quick turnover. person sharing. For example, he/she would give
New stories keep coming and sweeping older comments or initiate a new conversation.
ones. In the case that we want to retrieve past
stories, there is no practical way to do so. The people sharing are ones who actively want
to interact with other people. They wish people
While a story is being exposed for a short time, would react to their stories. However, current
it doesn’t always reach out to a compatible audi- SNS rely more on the people reading to actual-
ence. It heavily depends on who reads the story ize the interaction.
in time. When the person reading is interested
4 5

4. 2-3 Interaction in Current SNS 3
Current interaction model So, we got an...
Opportunity
User
Which is...
Can we
make better use
People are connected through network of people’s relationship on current SNS.
of people’s shared stories
to help them
Their stories are scattered and have little meaning upon their relationships.
connect with one another?
On current SNS, People publish all sorts of Therefore, as most of your content may not be
contents, contents are sorted by time(e.g. news relevant to your friends during that short amount
feeds and Facebook timeline),so everyone has of time, your content is easily to be forgot after
their own flow of contents. But the old contents one day, no matter it will be how useful and
submerged by a continuously flow of new valuable to your friend one month later, your
contents, while the possibility of new contents to friend will not know(he/she didn’t notice), you
be read, commented and share is rely on other lose the chance to share your experience when
people. it needed. Vice versa.
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5. 4 4-1 Story Network
Story Network is a mesh that connects people through their stories.
Get Into Society through Publish and Read Stories
Concept
Proposal
Public gossips to connect people with
the whole society.
Share Wisdom through Ancient Story
1 Story Network
2 Inspired by Gossip Mechanism
3 Proposed Interaction Group gossips to
connect people with
4 System Diagram past and future
5 Topic Clustering
Relieve Oneself or Others through Story Narrative
Private gossips to connect people’s
memory and emotion.
8 9

6. 4-2 Inspired by Gossip Mechanism 4-3 Proposed Interaction
Gossips Proposed Interaction Model
In developing the concept of Story Network, we Gossip is a casual way to get personal stories In developing the concept of Story Network, we proposed interaction model depicts how Story Network enhances people’s relationships by
were inspired by our early research about gos-
sips. Two of the most quoted defitions of gossip
about other people who are not present. Since
the talk is usually done secretly, people may
interconnecting their stories.
are: get emotionally distant with the target of gossip
1.Gossip is evaluative talk about a person [Wilson, Tracy V. How Gossip Works. Howstuff-
who is not present. [Eder, D. and Enke, J. works.com. URL: http://people.howstuffworks.
L. (1991) The structure of gossip: Op- com/gossip.htm]. They are not likely to approach
User
portunities and constraints on collective and interact with target of gossip about the
expression among adolescents. American discussed story.
Sociological Review, 56, 494-508. ]
2.Gossip is the process of informally com- In a similar manner, Story Network lets people
municating value-laden information about get stories about other people. The key dif-
members of a social setting [Noon, M. and ference is the stories they get are not random
Delbridge, R. (1993) News from behind my stories, but ones that relate to their own story.
hand: Gossip in organizations. Organization Unlike typical gossip, having this connecting
Studies, 14, 23-36.]. thread may build a closer emotional bond. It
suggests people to talk with each other about
the common stories, thus creating a richer and
deeper interaction.
What Story Network Does
We propose Story Network as a feature to lever- 1. Automatic Suggestion
age the interaction on one of Tencent’s SNS, When Alice shares a story, the system will auto-
namely Qzone. matically suggest similar stories that had been
shared previously by Alice’s friends. It gives her
When someone shares a story on Qzone, Story a chance to interact with them based on the
Network will provide similar stories to be sug- mutual context. Alice can send “thanks” or talk
gested to him/her. The story suggestion can be to them.
applied in two ways: automatic suggestion and
We design the whole system as a gossiper.
friend’s suggestion. To illustrate better, take Alice 2. Friend’s Suggestion
and her friend Kevin as sample Qzone users. When Kevin reads Alice’s story, he may look up Though the system connect stories from user’s friends to user, to make a better connections
similar stories that belong to his own friends.
between user and his/her relationship network.
old post became meaningful again
Then, he can suggest Alice to read his friend’s
story. He can also recommend Alice to become So that: the
user have a more relavant relationship with his/her friends.
friends with his friend. That way, Kevin helps
enhance understanding and the possibility to communicate.
Alice interact with other people and expand her
social network.
but, this model is based on timeline, what in our mind is story, story can be collected by...
10 11

7. 4-3 Proposed Interaction 4-3 Proposed Interaction
Topics:
For User:
Contents are different in time, but they have a shared topic. Such as my family, my relationship, my education, my
travel experience, my working experience, my health, and
my life experience
Shared Topics:
Therefore, from user’s perspective, his/her post is connected
with all his/her friends’ post that contains the similar experience
is connected by the relationship of shared topic.
So user have his/her own topic
clouds, his/her friends also have
their own topic clouds, my contents
connect with my friends’ contents that
are under the same topic.
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8. 4-3 Proposed Interaction 4-3 Proposed Interaction
User’s Action - Ask & Thank Friend’s Recommendation
Likewise, not only user can initiate interaction, useer’s friends
can also initiate interaction by RECOMMEND, for
instance, user’s friend A saw my post about travel to Japan,
A could recommend his/her friend’s post(not in my friend
list)to me, and I could choose to THANK and ADD
FRIEND as initiate reaction, so my friends circle can
enlarge while strengthen.
When user see the contents that the system send to him/her, we identify two actions that user
can initiative to interact with his/her friends.
One is ASK, this is a direct action towards Another action is THANK, the same
example of travel to Japan, when I read an
people, for example, I published an informa-
relevant article recommended by system that
tion that about travel to Japan, then I’ll get the
I think is helpful / interesting / touching,I could
similar post that from my friends which show
THANK this article and the friend who post
my friends has the experience in Japan, so I
it, so that my thanks give to both contents
can ASK my experienced friends about travel-
and people, and the people and contents I’ve
ling in Japan.
thanked will be show up in my topic cloud
page, attached with my post under the topic.
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9. 4-4 System Diagram
How the system behind Story Network works.
4-5 Topic Clustering
As mentioned before, Story Network will only We analyzed content on current SNS that apply
work with special posts, which explicitly convey to our definition of special post, and we figured
emotion about major life events. We made this out 6 main topics that can be incorporated to
consideration because significant emotion can Story Network.
bring people together in more meaningful ways. 1.Relationship and Family
People are more likely to share and feel each 2.Living
other about the experience of studying abroad 3.Health
rather than being stuck in an everyday traffic 4.Education
jam. Besides, if Story Network includes every 5.Work
single post on SNS, it will create another infor- 6.Travel
mation overflow.
Take A and B as sample Qzone users. When a same person will be grouped accordingly. gestion by friends, the system works similarly
A posts a story, the system will extract and Once the searching and sorting has been in generating the related posts. The difference
analyze keywords from the post. If the post completed, the system will suggest the top 10 is the trigger comes from A’s friend who reads
is considered as a special post, i.e. post that related posts to A. his/her story, say X. When X reads A’s story
conveys emotion about a major life event, the which is considered a special post, X can
system will search into posts published by A’s A may review the related posts. If A finds a look up posts published by X’s own friends
friends that contain similar keywords. useful post, for example B’s post, he/she can that relate to A’s story. Later, X may pick one
mark the importance by attaching B’s post to of the related posts that he/she thinks will be
The search result will be sorted based on his/her post while sending “thanks” to B. For useful for A, for example Y’s post. Finally, X
the closer relationships that A has with the further discussions, A can also talk directly will suggest A to read Y’s post or to become
friends, and also by time. This closeness of with B. friends with Y. The diagram below illustrates
relationship can be measured by the frequency the process of X’s suggestion for A.
of public and private interaction that occur The above explanation refers to the automatic
between two people. To simplify, posts from story suggestion by the system. For story sug-
We also analyzed how matching related stories can lead to a conversation among the people in-
volved. There are 4 different scenarios, yet these can be intertwined:
Shared Feeling Shared Location/Activity
When both sides experience similar feeling Finding friends living in the same location or
(usually negative), talking to each other going to the same activity may trigger peo-
may allow them to feel more comfortable. ple to catch up with each other. Example:
Example: pre-wedding blues. traveling to Japan.
Shared Interest Need Meets Help
Knowing friends who have a similar hobby If one side is having trouble about some-
may lead to a meet-up to do the hobby thing, while the other has the capability to
together. Example: weekly bicycling. help, they can get together to exchange
ideas/skills. Example: learning French.
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10. 5 5-1 Action Flow
Action Flow 1
1
Prototyping
1 Action Flow 2
2 Wireframes
3 Interface
4 Interactive Prototype
3
4
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11. 5-1 Action Flow 5-2 Wireframes
Action Flow 2 SiteTree & ScreenCapture of Wireframes
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12. 5-3 Interface 5-3 Interface
Scenario 1 - Travel to Japan
Similar Post - Travel to Japan
User’s Topic
System
Match
Page
Article
Status
Pictures
Video
...
User’s Post
System
Match
Relevant
information
extract from
friends’ post
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13. 5-3 Interface 5-3 Interface
Similar Post - Travel to Japan Topic Page - the contents I’ve Thanked
Thank to attach this
article to user’s topic,
and send thanks to
friend.
Attached here
We think people should come first as people is the
subject to receive thanks, then the contents.
24 25

14. 5-3 Interface 5-3 Interface
Scenario 2 - Learn French
Similar Post - Learn French
User’s Topic
System
Match
Page
User’s Post
Article
System Status
Match Pictures
Video
Relevant
...
information
extract from
friends’ post
26 27

15. 5-3 Interface 5-3 Interface
Scenario 3 - Wedding Preperation
Similar Post - Wedding Preperation
User’s Topic
System
Match
Page
Article
Status
User’s Post Pictures
Video
...
System
Match
Relevant
information
extract from
friends’ post
28 29

16. 5-4 Interactive Prototype 6
Go to http://cedric.sam.name/gossip/ to test it online.
Travel to Japan
Further
Learn French
Considerations
1 User Control
2 SWOT Analysis
Wedding Preperation
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17. 6-1 User Control 6-2 SWOT Analysis
Furthermore, we evaluated the value of Story Network in regards of
its strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats
that it may unfold.
Since Story Network is a novel concept that hasn’t been used in any existing SNS, people may not
be familiar with it. We would like to introduce Story Network in the way that users can have their
control over it.
Firstly, users can decide to activate or deactivate lished publicly.
the Story Network feature on their Qzone profile. 2.Searchability of old posts
Activating Story Network allows them to receive Whether posts from a certain period of
suggestions of related stories when they share a time could be retrieved by the system
special post. and suggested to friends.
3.Linkage of posts to friends’ posts
Secondly, users can control how their posts Whether posts could be attached to a
could be utilized by Story Network to a certain friend’s post.
extent. Users can allow or refuse the use their 4.Availability of posts for friends’ recom-
posts in Story Network: mendation
1.Display of special posts Whether posts could be used by a friend
Whether the special posts will be pub- to suggest to his/her own friends.
1.Strengths The abundant social data utilized by Social
Story Network embraces the meaning of shar- Network could be further cultivated for devel-
ing stories. Every special story doesn’t simply oping smart social applications. Many new
disappear on the SNS, but it can be pulled back opportunities could arise in the sense of making
in time to foster more relevant connection among the SNS a better place for people to interact
people around it. Story Network encourages with people who matter to them. Pushing it even
people to appreciate sharing and reading stories further, there will be opportunities in using the
as a way to create stronger emotional bonds. social data in relevance to commercial benefits.
2.Weaknesses 4.Threats
The back system of Story Network needs to Dealing with social data, Social Network may
work heavily on data mining and artificial intelli- face privacy issues. People may be concerned
gence to perform as a smart suggestion system. in the way the SNS manipulate their personal
This would lead to stress on the computational information. They may also think the SNS has
infrastructure. Supplementary costs in system become too smart in acknowledging every little
design and development should also be calcu- detail of information they share, which possibly
lated. freak them out.
3.Opportunities
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18. 7 8
Conclusion
Reflection
People share stories to engage with their personal network. 1 XIE Binhuan
Current SNS don’t address the meaning of stories. 2 Larissa Rena
3 QIU Shi
Story Network connects people through their stories. Thus,
4 Cedric Sam
it gives way for a richer and more meaningful interaction.
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19. 8-1 8-2
Reflection of XIE Binhuan Reflection of Larissa Rena
This project has its significance on SNS, it makes people’s contents be cared by Working on this project has been a highly valuable experience. The theme of
their friends, make people’s old posts become meaningful when needed. So the emotion expression is a complex one and we chose it as a fascinating challenge.
content initiate people’s further interaction on the foundation of shared experience. We started by drawing an angle of sharing emotion through gossips. The fact that
gossip is a controversial topic made it an interesting project. From our preliminary
This is a hard but worthwhile project. Started from an interested topic - gossip, we research, we learned that two thirds of human conversation comprise of gossips.
failed after the second presentation, that is two-thirds time has passed, but we pivit Another surprising finding states that only 5% of gossips are actually negative [Fox,
in a month successfully, and I didn’t have time and effort to realize that it is so suc- Kate. (2001) Evolution, Alienation and Gossip. Social Issues Research Centre.URL:
cessfully till the moment we got the “best team“ from Tencent. http://www.sirc.org/publik/gossip.shtml]. Therefore, we thought it was logical to build
our project on gossips. It was too logical, indeed. Later when we proposed the idea
I, as the team leader, am not just challenged by design work, but also by managing of enhancing gossips on SNS to people around us, we found the hard truth. As
the project. I can’t remember how many hours I have spend on it, and I don’t care much as everyone, either male or female, likes to gossip, they don’t like to admit it.
about that because the good result makes all the hard work become sweetness. In general, they perceive gossip as a negative behaviour. We realized that by taking
gossips theoretically, we missed the point of people’s real emotion towards gossip.
I’ve benefit a lot through this project and I still need to learn:
1. Management of a project, including conducting meetings and setting sched- Facing what looked like a dead-end in developing our design concept, we were
ules and objectives, managing different views and considerations come from thankful that our supervisors encouraged us to make a detour. Even some famous
people’s different standpoints, when failed don’t be panic but should find out products/services in the real world were deviated from their initial propositions,
the reason and learn from it, try another approach when the first one doesn’t so we should not lose hope. Thus, we tried to take whatever resources we had to
work, and this should be done quickly and nicely, be able to tell others and come up with a different angle. Story Network became the new direction, eventually.
make others accurately understand your objectives,.
Besides the challenge in the concept development, we also struggled with the team
2.Skills in design work, including detailed design thinking in interaction and dynamics. We had to manage differences in personal mindset as well as time and
task flow, conducting and editing movie, conveying your design to people cor- place of work. Dealing with such condition led us to understand how real work envi-
rectly, using After Effect and Premiere effectively. ronment might be like. Moreover, we were working with Tencent as a real company.
Getting various feedback from Tencent staffs helped us recognizing what aspects
3. Believe in yourself. Frustration and failure is nothing when you keep working shall be expected within the company. Those lessons learned would be very useful
with the lessons you’ve learned. for our future jobs.
There is also something I believe I should be able to do better next time, and I’ll
keep it to myself. :) XOXO, gossip girl.
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20. 8-3
Reflection of QIU Shi
The workshop for Tencent Company provides me a valuable experience for thinking
the relationship between product and business strategy. Tencent is a typical Chinese
local online company and very famous in China. Almost all the Chinese netizens are
quite familiar with the Tencent QQ.
In this workshop, I have a deep investigation about Tencent product and company
history. Tencent aims to create one stop life platform for Chinese netizens and
also has the strategy abroad in recent years. Tencent gains a biggest profit among Thanks for Review
Chinese online companies. Business strategies play a great important role in the
Tencent development and promote the success of Tencent online product. IM is the
core product in Tencent. Based on the IM service, Tencent establishes its own prod-
uct system to provide various services for the Chinese netizens.
This report created by XIE Binhuan and Larissa Rena
The essence of Tencent product is enhancing the relationship between human
beings; therefore, how to improve and strengthen user stickiness is the key factor.
Emotion is one solution to enhance the user stickiness. Different from the efficiency- Thanks to Tutor:
priority online product, some Tencent products tend to provide the immersive experi- Michael Lai
ence for the users and encourage users to spend more time on experiences. Tequila CHAN
Tencent Company in Shenzhen seems a little smaller than my expectation. But I and Thanks to:
have a deep memory of its culture exhibition. In the exhibition, Tencent systemati- Tencent ISUX
cally introduces its typical online product and market sharing in China which demon-
strates its strength in China even in the world.
38 39