This is my final post to this blog because all good things must come to an end. Coincidentally, this is also my 42nd post to this blog. Forty-two, a significant number in its own right. It is a number that stirred some Deep Thoughts inside my mind. Thoughts about the ultimate answer to the question "why do we tweet?". So, for a few months or so, I have observed how people use Twitter and what their motivations for tweeting could be. Of course, I have also put google to work and also picked some use cases from here, here and here. The result of all this is a list of 42 Twitter use cases. which are listed in the table below. But, before you jump to my list, I should explain that I have rather simplified the notion of "Use Case" for my purpose. You will see no pre- and postconditions for example, let alone actors. You could argue that the "intended result(s)" are the postconditions, so feel free. This post isn't about the nits and grits of writing use cases (you should jump to Alistair Cockburn's website for that in stead).
|
# | description | intended result(s) |
| 1 | assess a new follower: check bio, check activity, read some of that user's latest updates, check who else is following this user | knowing whether this user is worth following back |
|
2 | reply to another twitter user's update |
have that user follow you (back), strengthen your connection with that user, increase the level of interaction you get on twitter |
|
3 |
acknowledge another twitter user's update (retweet) |
strengthen your current connections, gain some more followers |
|
4 |
comment on another user's blog post (modern blogging systems allow you to tweet comments you leave behind) |
strengthen your current connections, gain some more followers |
|
5 |
share a link to your latest blog post |
have people visit your blog |
|
6 |
share a link to an interesting article you came accross |
strengthen your current connections, gain some more followers |
|
7 |
tag an update (using a hashtag) |
reach people outside your current group of followers, gain some more followers |
|
8 |
share conference impressions (live conference feedback tweets, usually tagged with the hashtag for that conference) |
have people know you are at the conference, gain more followers |
|
9 |
submit live comment while watching a talk (or webinar) |
let other people who couldn't attend about the talk know what they are missing (or not) |
|
10 |
share pointless babble such as "going to walk the dog" or "good night" |
An sense of enormous well being (citation from "Park Life" by Blur). Supposedly, people love to read snack-sized content so you will entertain lots of people. |
|
11 |
share your impressions and experiences with a gadget you recently purchased |
other people buying the same gadget, get interaction with people who also bought that gadget, gain more followers |
|
12 |
report news you are witnessing (e.g. tweet about a plane you see crashing with a link to a picture or video you shot on the spot) |
feel like a news reporter, get people to retweet the news, gain more followers |
|
13 |
take polls (e.g. what mobile twitter client do you use most often?) |
whatever results/answers/stats you are aiming for |
|
14 |
store a thought so you won't forget it |
an online memory of your thoughts for later recovery and use, provoke thoughts in other people's heads, start interaction |
|
15 |
post your resume (using http://www.twitres.com) |
get job offers |
|
16 |
get live feedback throughout a conference (often now, live conference feedback tweets are projected on a wall encouraging more people to tweet their impressions) |
see early feedback allowing you to change/adjust things while the conference is taking place, potentially have lots of people promote the conference through their follower network |
|
17 |
report a problem you are having with an application you are using |
get support, either directly from the vendor, or from other users |
|
18 |
wish for a feature in your favorite twitter client |
get a response telling you the feature you are wishing for is a splendid idea and that it will be implemented in the next release, or that the feature is already implemented but you simply didn't look for it (duh) |
|
19 |
publish news updates around your open source project |
have people know the existence of your project, have people download/try the latest binaries, get feedback for the latest release |
|
20 |
ask people to join your open source project |
more project participants, ultimately improved project activity and productivity |
|
21 |
inform your followers about a talk you are going to do on a certain conference/symposium |
get a larger audience, gain more followers |
|
22 |
post job/career oportunities at your company |
job candidates |
|
23 |
share details of your presidential election campaign |
increased popularity, votes, become president of the US |
|
24 |
find free beer (simply by searching twitter for those two words) |
get drunk at someone else's expense |
|
25 |
share your current whereabouts through services like brightkite (this a very popular use of Twitter and led to this popular online game: http://playfoursquare.com |
get into contact with people that are in your vicinity, become the mayor (FourSquare) of a location |
|
26 |
track someone's whereabouts and status |
knowing where someone is and if he/she is okay |
|
27 |
Submit status ("come on rockets!!!!") of the Mars lander of the Mars Phoenix project (NASA, May 2008) |
share a very cool thing with the world in a very cool way |
|
28 |
thank a new follower for following you using a direct message |
interaction, based on a response decide whether to follow back |
|
29 |
semi-urgently reach someone (twitter users often respond quicker to direct messages than to e-mails: "d mnankman check your e-mail, I sent you something important") |
almost guaranteed and quick delivery of semi-urgent messages or requests |
|
30 |
find out what people are saying right now about something you are thinking to purchase |
reassurance about the purchase, or advice against the purchase, advice on alternative products |
|
31 |
find out what other people's experience are with a certain new technology you are thinking to adopt |
reassurance about using the technology, hints on the use of and problems with the technology, or advice against using it, suggestions for alternative technologies |
|
32 |
find names for your unborn child |
suggestions for names, interaction with other (to be) parents |
|
33 |
search for a topic of your interest (such as the safety of flying with a certain airline company) |
real-time news about that topic, reassurance (or not) of your plans, |
|
34 |
solve Ajax programming problems |
tips and suggestions on how to solve the problem |
|
35 |
submit the next step in the washing program (your washing machine being the actor that initiates this use case) |
set an interesting example on how Twitter could be used. Many innovations begin at a crazy starting point. |
|
36 |
submit the state - open or closed - of a bridge (@towerbridge) |
set an interesting example on how Twitter could be used. Many innovations begin at a crazy starting point. |
|
37 |
sell your twittername (via http://tweexchange.com/) |
a comfortable sum of money |
|
38 |
Recommend nice people to follow (using the #NPF hashtag) |
gain more followers |
|
39 |
Promote obscure sites that promise you loads of followers within weeks |
get people to visit a site that is stuffed with ads, ergo: earn money through people's gullability |
|
40 |
Promote supposedly easy ways to become rich |
get people to visit a site that is stuffed with ads, ergo: earn money through people's gullability |
|
41 |
Contribute to an opera (Twitterdammerung) |
Being part of a crazy but amazing project, hearing lines you contributed actually sung at the performance of the opera |
|
42 |
Fight a mobster (http://playmobsterworld.com) |
Virtual respect, gain more members in your own mob, joy |
Mark Nankman is no longer a UX Architect and Web 2.0 thought leader at Capgemini, but his public brain waves can still be followed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mnankman
