UX Evaluation Over Time: User Tools in Social Networks

Social networks are a meeting point on the Internet; people use them to exchange opinions, help each other, or have fun. The growth and success of a social network are multifactorial phenomena but can be generalised into two factors: the quality of the content, and the User eXperience (UX) that the platform offers. Thus, the design of the GUI of a social network must come from the needs of its users. It is necessary to study the UX over time, before and after the development of the platform. Before, the Anticipated User eXperience (AUX) allows knowing the idealisations and desires of users. After, the UX is the measure of the actual system. We propose a UX over time evaluation method for user tools in social networks to have a way to contrast both results, improve the design of user tools, and finally increase participation. To test our evaluation method, we designed an experiment in which users had to devise on paper different user tools. Then, they had to evaluate similar elements but this time in actual social networks. The AUX and UX of the participants were measured with AttrakDiff. Our results show that, based on their previous experience, participants had established ideas on the behaviour of user tools, having a visible impact when their expectations were not met.