Wikimedia Product/Perspectives/Experience/Discovery

Summary
“For many interviewees, paying active attention to the news was unimportant, because such information was “in the air” as an ambient part of daily life.” [1]

In today’s world, content finds the consumer. Over the past decade, social media has had a profound influence on the user experience of finding content on the Internet: time and attention are scarce resources and users have become increasingly accustomed to consuming information surfaced and filtered by friends and family via social feeds. In the current paradigm, information automatically flows toward readers – it simply shows up as part of whatever journey they’re on.

In this way, social media tools have (re)defined the expectations and habits of users all over the world. Users expect relevant information to find them as a result of their preference and feed settings. Facebook and WhatsApp have become primary entry points for new users accessing the internet, and are for many emerging communities, simply conflated with the Internet. For these communities, the page-based mental model of the Internet will effectively never have existed.

Resources
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