MEDIA SHARING AND THE USE OF SOCIAL SOFTWARE

1st Supervisor:Prof. Joachim Hasebrook

2nd Supervisor:

This thesis is focused on qualitative design research methods in order to establish basic design principles necessary for social software and media sharing to be successful. The example used for exploring these principles is the design of a video portal that delivers tutorials as well as social software features to students via an international commercial platform. These principles are then incorporated into functional features that are researched via best practices, iterative design process, user testing, and interviewing. One of the main principles discussed is the need for shared context meaning that, a social platform based around shared goals has the most potential in terms of benefiting from social software features. Other design principles that are discussed are community, identity, participation, sharing and feedback. The functional features elaborated on to support these design principles are tagging, bookmaking and favorites, as well as rating, media sharing, user statistics, commenting, and the creation of profiles.