To achieve popularity, Web 2.0 websites like Facebook, MySpace, Amazon, Twitter, etc. must answer these three questions simply and quickly:
1. How does it work?
2. Do you use it?
3. Do you like it and why?
If a Web 2.0 website can't answer these questions succinctly, users won't get it and won't join. In other words, a Web 2.0 website must "read quickly". The site must be intuitive and any sticky points explained within a few seconds of a user landing on the site's home page. This is why so many Web 2.0 sites have video "tours" that show what they do.
Twitter's tour is a perfect example. Though explaining the benefit of 140-character micro-blogging might be a tough sell for some, the Twitter crew uses clever animation to keep a user's attention through its demo, which is somewhat lengthy for a Web 2.0 tour.
Many Web 2.0 websites answer the above three questions, but my wife's newfound addiction to Facebook is puzzling; the site is complicated, overbuilt, riddled with confusing rules, and difficult to use.
The Facebook learning curve is quite steep. My wife asked me easily two dozen questions about Facebook last night that I couldn't begin to answer, mostly because Facebook doesn't seem to follow the lingua franca and the zen of Web 2.0. In fact, Facebook's complexity and visual overstimulation remind me of early versions of Amazon.com, which was chock-full of useless functionality.
So the benefit of using Facebook must be so great that it's worth negotiating its quirks.
Here are some other Web 2.0 site tours. Blogger | Jott
Stay tuned for an upcoming post: "How to Create an Effective Website Tour".
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