Girls In Tech

Last week I attended a talk by Erin Malone-  Designing Social Interfaces – 5 principles, 5 practices, 5 antipatterns.

I highly recommend checking out the presentation below. For me, the most interesting part was the discussion about the key decisions that define the future life of your site. Erin briefly discussed how there needs to be a compromise of your product’s vision in order to adjust for the real social needs of your users. She gave an example of how Friendster’s users attempted to create celebrity and music profiles, but Friendster did not allow this as it wasn’t part of their mission.

This decision ultimately contributed to the decline of Friendster and the major growth of MySpace. It’s flexibility, a strong understanding of how people socialize, and the ability to predict the future needs of your audience that will set your product apart from the rest.

Starting an online magazine at the age of 15 and spending at least 75% of my day behind my 17-inch mac book pro–one can only see how much my life revolves around the Internet.  With the holiday season coming around, I thought I would start looking for gift ideas for my young nieces and nephews. I didn’t want to follow the most obvious route of videos games and barbie dolls.  Instead, I went online and came across a site called My Handwork Studio.  My Handwork Stduio is a new, safe virtual needle arts and fashion community where kids can be creative, learn new crafts and share their designs with new friends.

The reason this particular site caught my attention was the online aspect of something that was known to be an “offline” activity.  The online site allows kids and teens to do some pretty cool activities such as:

Create an On-line Persona: Kids can create their own on-line character (avatar) –  including customized outfit, skin and eye color — and profile by sharing favorite hobbies and activities.  Send and receive messages from fellow Studio kids, even add friends to the personalized Studio page.

Learn Cool Crafts: “Kid Educators” provide “how to” video instructions on knitting, crochet, embroidery, hand- and machine-sewing, and needle crafting.  After watching the videos, print off detailed instructions and templates to make the projects at home. When done, upload a photo to your profile so all of your Studio friends can see it.

Play Games: Earn “Studio Dollars” by playing fun, on-line games.  Redeem by buying virtual accessories  — iPods, cell phones and pets — for your character.

Shop for Crafting Supplies: Our on-line store allows you to buy crafting supplies, books and materials on-line and have them shipped directly to your home.

Seek On-line Crafting Help: Need more information developing these new crafting skills? The Retailers section allows you to type in your zip code and see all of the local craft stores in your community where you can seek additional help.

The website will also be launching a “kit of the month club” that integrates the online aspect of the community with offline crafts delivered straight to one’s doorstep. This is definitely a great gift idea for the upcoming holidays—especially for me (I am known for bringing the theme of the “Internet” in everything I do).

I think My Handwork Studio is going in the right direction.  The average store front businesses are embracing new technology and reaching a much larger audience in more innovative ways. For more information, check out their website at http://myhandworkstudio.com