I spent the second half of the day in the Interaction Design workshop – focusing on how design can promote or discourage user participation. Although we may not consciously realize it, our behaviors are constantly, yet subtly, shaped by design, both online and in the real world. Everything should, if it is well designed, suggest its proper use without requiring the user to think. Furthermore, the amount of work required to do something will correlate with the amount and quality of participation.
The same principles apply to web design. Imposing hurdles, like registration, will reduce levels of participation on your site, but also improve the quality of content created. Conversely, reducing all hurdles will increase participation. Asking for participation that is easy and fun, like recalling favorite memories, making a simple choice about an abstract question (would you like to go to the moon?), or simple creative exercises (what’s your dream potato chip flavor?), will be much more effective than something more strenuous, such as writing original jokes (harder than it sounds!) or stories.
The big take away from this workshop for me was that we should all be more conscious of the kind of participation we actually WANT, before we design the interactive experiences, and, once we have, think about whether we would want to participate ourselves. If not, we have a problem.