Media: UIE interviews Online Community designer Powazek

"Design for Community: An Interview with Derek M. Powazek" by Christine Perfetti, to be found on the User Interface Engineering website, highlights the work of a 'community feature' specialist. Powazek has worked on projects of Netscape, Nike, and Sony, as well as creating community sites such as Kvetch!

'I advise clients to never call their sites "communities." Instead, I tell them to provide adequate tools for your members to communicate with each other, plenty of relevant material to talk about, and an elegant structure that encourages conversation. If you're successful, your members will start calling it a community on their own.', says the designer.

Questions he tackles include the benefits of
incorporating community features, common misperceptions about designing community spaces ('The biggest misconception is that community can be built at all. It can't.'), how individual sites can get community features to work for them, and major mistakes site owners should avoid.

His answers are satisfyingly down-to-earth and sensible.

'The thing to remember is, the Internet is a big place, and there is indeed a community out there for everyone. But your community doesn't have to include everyone. The idea is to find the people who care about your product, service, or niche, and make a place just for them.'

Associated Link: UIE: Design for Community: An Interview with Derek M. Powazek

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