Web Application Design Patterns

Chapter 9. Social Applications

Introduction

Increasingly, web applications are designed to encourage user participation and sharing. User participation is typically in the form of user-contributed content, where users add their own content to the application (ADD/UPLOAD CONTENT) and describe it using tags (TAGGING). Other ways for users to participate is by providing RATINGS and REVIEWS of content offered by the application. Many applications also involve users in promoting items by letting them vote for their usefulness and relevance (VOTE TO PROMOTE).

To ensure that user participation leads to a trusted online community, users have to establish an account with the application and create a USER PROFILE. Although for products and services, trust ...