Shrugh Response Demo

EclecticGuy November 23, 2008 design, shrugh, social computing, software, technology 4 Comments

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My friend and UI guru Bob and I have been thinking about Shrugh. This collaboration has been really helpful and some good stuff has come out of it. As part of the initial discussion, I created a short demo on how a user responds to a shrugh that has been posted. You can see it here (and please leave feedback at the end). (This was, of course, created with balsamiq Mockups and my technique for making an interactive demo).

After I completed the demo though, the juices really got flowing! I am all for keeping it as simple as possible. As Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” Words to live by! So, let me try this on you – please let me know what you think!

  1. When a shrugher creates a new shrugh, they pick from 1 of 3 types: Yes/No, Fish for Answer, and Pros/Cons. After picking the type, they enter their shrugh and an optional comment to add detail.
  2. Each of these 3 types of shrughs has a different set of responses for users to choose from when they respond to a shrugh – this is the “Is your reply a…” option menu in the demo:
    • “Is your reply a…” Yes or No
    • “Is your reply a…” Verdict, Opinion, Kibitz
    • “Is your reply a…” Pro or Con
  3. That is it, very simple. Anyone adding a reply (including the shrugh owner) does so the same way. The choose what their reply type is (see the list above) and then type in the reply. Very simple. Pros and Cons also have an “importance” (weighting) option 1-5 that can be set.
Using this information, Shrugh can display a very clear status for each shrugh:
  • a Yes/No shrugh could show: “255 Yes, 11 No replies”
  • a Fish for Answer shrugh could show: “123 Verdicts, 256 Opinions, and 232 Kibitzes”
  • a Pros/Cons shrugh could show: “145 pros, 11 cons”
I’m still thinking of a better label for Fish for Answer – the idea is that the shrugher wants the community to provide feedback (usually a comment or a simple item).
I like this idea since it seems consistent across all 3 shrugh types and seems to flow well. I’ll be prototyping this and posting the demo ASAP.


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4 Responses to “Shrugh Response Demo”

  1. b2 said:

    Nov 23, 08 at 3:55 pm

    OK, so the shrugher defines the “style” of response they are requesting and the respondent, within that style, picks the type of response. Is there going to be any programmatic significance to the distinction between verdict, opinion, musing, kibitz?

    Is there a separate location for the ultimate decision by the shrugher? Granted, not all shrughers will want to post their decision (“Which is worse? Being a 40 year old virgin or losing my virginity to a “pro”?) I would think respondents might want to see the ultimate outcome to shrugs they responded to at a glance (i.e. without having to read through the entire shrugh).

    I’m still not clear on the “social” and networking aspect of it. That may not be an area you’ve addressed yet, but I do think that will be key…

    Enough procrastinating on my letter…

  2. EclecticGuy said:

    Nov 23, 08 at 5:47 pm

    Hey b2 :)

    Not really any programmatic distinction between the response type. In fact, this is one of the reasons I like this simplification – all shrugh types are treated the same.

    Yes, the idea would be the shrugher would post the shrugh, collect feedback and then later, come back and “close” the shrugh with the final decision/outcome. The outcome can be kept private too (so your scenario would be kept private :) ) I agree on the outcomes too, I think once a shrugh is closed, it appears as the original question and the outcome. You would be able to click the shrugh to get the details – the list of responses for instance.

    Social in the sense that shrughers ask the Shrugh community (Shrugiverse as my friend Bob calls it) for their input/help to answer the shrugh. I could imagine little communities forming around certain categories of shrughs – like a community of shrughers asking philosophical questions vs those that are asking about dating advise. The demo does not really do a good job of showing that. It should be clearer on an upcoming software release when all the parts from creating a shrugh, to responding to closing are complete.

  3. Rob C said:

    Nov 26, 08 at 5:50 am

    EG,

    Could not get to the demo for some reason… connection interruptus.

    So to be clear, the shrugh type is set by the shrugher, get that. The response type is set by the shrughee (responder). Can types be combined? A shrughee can kibitz about a yes/no shrugh?

    I am looking forward to seeing how you handle the results viewing. As B2 states, with large volumes it could get tedious at best. To me some great innovation here would not only make the site valuable, it could solve what I think is one of the problems with social networking sites. Can you consider some sort of scoring algorythm, or navigated search technology to rank the responses?

    RC

  4. EclecticGuy said:

    Nov 26, 08 at 9:17 am

    Hey Rob, odd that you could not connect. I host on GoDaddy and they have been very reliable.

    THe shrughie does choose the response type. Each shrugh type will probably have a different set of response types, like this:

    a Yes/No shrugh would have response types “yes” and “no”
    a Fish for Answer (need better name) will have Verdict, Opinion, Kibitz
    a Pros vs Cons shrugh would have “pro” and “con”

    I think it is that simple (for now at least).

    I totally agree with both b2 and you about results viewing. I am spending many available bpu cycles thinking about this one. VIsualization and navigation will be key. Scoring for pro/con is pretty easy (I think), yes/no is easy (I think), fish for answer needs some thought.

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