Over the last few weeks I’ve been designing an interface for a new social tool. It was a real eye opener for me and I learned a lot, including the importance of understanding the basic principles of human psychology. However the usage lifecycle is probably the best thing to consider before designing any interface. It details a common set of hurdles that every website faces and no matter what the nature of it is, there is a general lifecycle people go through in order to use its software.

Below are the 5 different user states in the usage lifecycle.

The Stages and Hurdles

Unaware

When you first launch your software, many people will not have heard of or read about your service. Although this group of people will be unaware of your service, they will be aware of their own frustrations with the current way that they do things. The key to getting their attention is to make sure that your software solves their problem and make sure you tell a genuine story!

Interested

This group of people have heard of your software from a friend, colleague, blog post, or followed a link and now need to be told that you can solve their problem. They are ready to be told about your service so make sure you give a good rationale as to why they should use your service! Don’t be too pushy but make sure they know exactly how you can solve their problem. Lastly, it’s good to make sure that your homepage has a very clear call to action. Do all this, and they’ll happily sign up.

First-time Use

Once a visitor signs up to your service and becomes a user, they experience your software for the first time. The impression that your site makes on the user at this point is absolutely critical. As they explore your application they are making judgments. Does this software really solve my problem? Does it really do what it says on the ‘tin’? They are deciding whether your service is worth switching from what they currently use.

If people don’t see the value in your service at this point then they may never return.

Regular Use

This group of people are using your software regularly. They are constantly adapting and learning, spending increasingly larger amounts of time on your site. They will communicate with you and you can learn from this. This is the point at which you start having success!

Passionate Use

Passionate users are the most important users on your site. They will feel emotional attachment to your service. This usually happens after the site becomes a real success. They will want to tell all their friends about it. It is critical at this point to socially empower these users and enable them to tell everyone they know, evangelizing your service and bringing more users in. You must always remember that a recommendation from a friend has a whole lot more value than other conventional marketing methods.

So there we have it…

…awareness, sign up, return visits, and emotional attachment. You will need to overcome these four hurdles in order for your social application to succeed. Good luck!