Subscribe
Sign in
19
Replies
@rrhoover Our goal is to make software that fosters empathy. Consumer software takes years to find itself, but we’ve learned in this short time that making it simple to combine a suggested word or phrase with a suggested photo or image makes it easy to express yourself in a way you may not have elsewhere. We’re keen on pursuing this direction.
@biz fostering empathy was a core part of your message and mission when Jelly launched. This is a topic I'm particularly interested in and have been watching products like Secret, Ethan, Kindly, Be My Eyes, and others bring people together in similar ways (I wrote about this topic a year ago).
But how do you know you're building empathy, especially with something like Super that encourage empathy in less direct and obvious ways? Is there a metric you use?
@biz @rrhoover Just to chime in (I'm the iOS developer at Super), at this early stage we're thinking a lot about making it really fun and approachable. The empathy comes from stirring up thoughts based on the images and text and the interplay between them. We're already seeing a big outpouring of love and positivity in our community. We're still trying to figure out the "perfect" metric to measure this, but for now we're listening to the feedback from our community.
@rrhoover It's hard, we're working on some rudimentary instrumentation. Anecdotally, when you'e part of the community, you can get a feel for it. And then there is organic feedback like this https://super.me/p/1r58 and this https://super.me/p/2Yg8 that give you a hint you're going in the right direction.
@biz Being more of a visual person I often find it a lot easier to start with the image and then come up with the words. Just wondering if your approach in using words / phrases as step one and then the image is deliberate.
@biz I was a huge fan of Jelly from the get go, but found it hard to use if one doesn't have enough followers on Twitter. As a result, a lot of questions were going unanswered. But I did really like the local q&a that you introduced later. I'm in the location space myself and I am curious what made you switch focus Jelly to Super given how local discovery/communication is still unsolved? Cheers
@shapob We were not getting enough questions on Jelly, but (your case excepted) when there were questions, there were very often a huge amount of answers—especially when it came to sharing a specific, human thought or opinion. So we thought, why not remove the question altogether and just allow people to share their thoughts and opinions? I.e., "THE BEST tacos are...". Maybe if we add search later, we get what we were going for originally. Additionally, Jelly simply wasn't fun enough—it was more like homework than fun. So, we created Super to be fun. The idea being, if something is fun, then people are more likely to use it; if a whole lot of people use it, then it has the potential to become important. I hope that answers your question, thanks for asking.
@biz @jazzychad@rrhoover I have some thoughts regarding the fixed words at the beginning of Super, such as 'BEST' 'WORST' 'BECAUSE' etc. I think these are designed to 'constrain' the users to form empathy along similar expressions.
I loved the overall experience, such as vibrant color, animated UX, bold text, but felt a bit of friction (felt like I had to 'make up' a story, instead of sharing a genuine thought that can foster empathy among others) before posting because I didn't get a compelling 'reason' to conform my 'Super' into those fixed words.
Wouldn't it amplify such objective if you have a trending 'group of words' at the beginning, instead of fixed words, that are actually being used at the moment by your friends, or people nearby you.
*This is my first strip by the way! :-)
https://super.me/p/4OX8
@alexyoungkwon haha, nice strip! Definitely right about creating empathy by using the starter words to create similar expressions of thought. We're certainly playing around w/ the starter words (in fact we change them up almost daily), so hopefully it won't always be too constraining. We do recognize that sometimes the grammar feels forced, and we're thinking of ways to fix that.
Quite interested in the "in your face" use of colour in the app. A few others seem to be going in this direction including the recent Bloomberg redesign and much of the Snapchat Discover content. It feels quite fresh and exciting in comparison to softer colour schemes used elsewhere, but perhaps less timeless.
@catchpowle Thanks! We definitely like the crazy use of color and shapes in our design. It certainly makes it a fun app to build :)
@catchpowle Also, to add on to what @chad said, when something is fun, it's more likely that people will use it. If lots of people us it, then it has the potential to become important. So, we're focused on fun to start.
@biz love this - really interested in the empowering empathy component. Would love to connect privately on ideas around inviting/finding friends - have some suggestions for Super and would love to share if email or DM is an option.
@bobgreenlees Hi Bob, in general we hope to make an app that is so compelling that people invite their friends on their own. Still, yes, of course I'm always open to feedback. My email is biz@super.me. Thank you.
Constraints inspire creativity. They also constrain. We wanted to keep the simple, bold, and emotional resonance of a single post on Super, but we wanted to allow for even more creativity, more storytelling, more… who knows what? Strips are just that, each panel stands alone, but together, they become more than the sum of their parts.
P.S. We're hiring
Product Hunt