So.cl: Microsoft's social network, or search experiment, or kind ofboth, sort of
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Users log in to the network with their Facebook or Windows Live accounts.
There are two reasons I can’t help but be cynical about So.cl, Microsoft’s latest social search experiment. I have no “official” user experience training, but both of my reasons might be considered UX critiques:
First, Facebook login suggests an interest in reducing friction, but my experience was anything but smooth. The So.cl page offers to let you sign in, so I tried to sign in with my personal email address but was told that address wasn’t connected to a registered Windows Live account. So I tried to register the same email address with Windows Live. Then, I was told it was already connected to a Windows Live account. I registered a different email address as a new Windows Live account and then got a landing page saying they’d send me an invitation ASAP. So much for signing in.
Facebook has its claws in Microsoft’s little social experiment, and it’s probably profoundly easier to use than Microsoft’s own sign-up/in process. Unfortunately, anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook account must brave Microsoft’s abysmal Windows Live process. No third way. This is a classic case of fail, and Danny Sullivan’s experience, which he wrote about at his Marketing Land website, suggests the problems I had trying to get into the damn thing only continue as you dig deeper.
Second, Microsoft did stuff it didn’t need to waste time doing: creating a stand-alone site and allowing users to: make “rich” posts (read: blog), “riff” on other posts (read: reblog, a la Tumblr), and conduct “video parties” (read: Google Hangouts, but with less features).
As usual, I have some unsolicited advice for a massive technology corporation:
First, let users sign up with an email address. If you want to make that email address automatically a new Windows Live account, fine, but don’t ask for ZIP code and gender while you do it. Don’t use multiple redirects to sign-up stages, either. Make it simple.
Second, just integrate the experiment into Bing.com itself, which looks better every time I visit it. Show users a very prominent one-time explanation and allow interested folks to opt into the experiment. Then, make the So.cl bits a minimal but eye-catching and useful sub-component of each search result or something. Anything but a distinct site. If it feels like a new feature, it’s not as off-putting as a stand-alone site, which can feel like a new hungry content monster users are expected to feed.
Microsoft has impressed many people with their design direction on Bing, as well as Windows 8 and Windows Phone (aside from the unfortunate fact that we’re still calling the last two things “Windows” at all). Simple user experience stuff like this though shows they still have much room for improvement.
For the record, one of my favorite user experience designs is ifttt. Show us what you can help us do and how to do it in the same step. That, to me, is an epic UX win.
#Articles #search #facebook #social networks #Microsoft #social #social networking #social search