SpiderSavvyBuilding The Web

13th October 2009
Posted in Usability

Jacob Neilson, the king of usability, has just published, Streams, Walls, and Feeds: Distributing Content Through Social Networks and RSS. In this article Neilson discusses what users prefer when incorporating RSS feeds, and Social Networks from businesses.

Summary:

“Users prefer a more casual style for business messages on social networks than what’s appropriate for most corporate communications. At the same time, they expect RSS feeds to be more business-like and to cut the chit-chat. Also, for some services — such as the BBC — people preferred a highly professional tone, even on social networks.”

“Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.”