A Qualitative Approach to Develop Niche Social Networks

A Reading Social Networks Case Study

James William Pontes Miranda, Danilo Henrique Rodrigues Bueno,

Rogéria Cristiane Gratão de Souza, Carlos Roberto Valêncio,

Antônio Marcos Neves Esteca and Geraldo Francisco Donegá Zafalon

Computer Science and Statistics Department, São Paulo State University - UNESP, São Paulo, Brazil

Keywords: Social Networks, Software Quality Assurance, Web.

Abstract: The daily use of social networks is in growth around the world and this includes niche social networks, which

have as a main feature an audience segmented by some kind of affinity that particularizes a group. This paper

focuses on a specific type of niche social network, which are the reading social networks, aiming to perform

a qualitative analysis of this type of website The goal is to understand how the qualitative factors can affect

the users and also to serve as reference for the construction of new niche social networks, based on quality

factors widely used for the creation of various types of software systems. Thus, this paper aims to fill a need

for specific studies of niche social networks and also the influence of qualitative factors of software in

websites, helping users and developers of reading social networks.

1 INTRODUCTION

A social network is a complex system where each

node on the network interacts with other nodes, based

on activities and social relationships (Musial et al.,

2013). It can also be classified as a system or web

service that provides the users the possibility to

construct a public or semi-public profile, view and

explore their own lists and lists of other users that are

part of their connections and also have profiles on the

same service (Ellison and Boyd, 2013). Nowadays, it

is possible to notice a wide increase of the daily use

of social networks by people around the world, being

one of the most accessed websites and also where

users spend more time (Nielsen, 2014). The

importance of these systems is also noticed when the

large communities created around them and the

intense exchange of information on social networks

allows new approaches to solve problems in different

areas (Unankard et al., 2014; Cerqueira et al., 2015).

It is also possible to notice an expansion in the

segmented use of social networks for all sorts of

purposes and audiences, creating niche social

networks that can be segmented on geographic,

demographic or affinity of interests (Heidemanna,

Kliera and Probstb, 2012). Thus, it is possible to find

different types of social networks, among them, the

reading social networks, which have the reader as

target audience (Vlieghe and Rutten, 2013).

In the context of software systems, quality is a

crucial point of concern, affecting everything from

the personal satisfaction and the success in business

to human security, with the aim of providing income

and avoiding negative consequences for the users

(ISO/IEC, 2011). As any other software system,

social networks need to follow certain quality

standards in order to promote a good experience to its

users. So, given that social networks encourage the

collaborative aspect where users are also content

producers, information professionals must define and

elaborate instruments that allow the optimal use of

available resources.

The main objective of this paper is the study of

software quality criteria and its application in the

creation of a reading social network, named

“MyLibrary”, seeking to understand how these

factors may contribute to the quality assurance of

usability as well as support the development of this

kind of system. Finally, “MyLibrary” is evaluated in

order to analyse how such quality criteria affect the

user experience.

Miranda, J., Bueno, D., Souza, R., Valêncio, C., Esteca, A. and Zafalon, G.

A Qualitative Approach to Develop Niche Social Networks - A Reading Social Networks Case Study.

In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2016) - Volume 2, pages 265-272

ISBN: 978-989-758-187-8

265

2 RELATED WORK

Millions of users add the daily access to social

networks to their routines (Nielsen, 2014). Although

there are a large number of variations of this kind of

web system, an online social network basically

consists of a set of profile pages that display a list of

friends who also have profiles on the system,

composing an actual network (Ellison and Boyd,

2013).

In this type of web system, it is possible to identify

networks of general purpose as Facebook or Twitter,

for example, where the users aim to share content and

information based on daily experiences, without any

specific topic. However, it is possible to notice the

emergence and growth of so called niche social

networks, where the goal of the public is also sharing

information, but based on certain aspects that define

a particular group of people and topics of interest

(Heidemanna, Kliera and Probstb, 2012). It is

possible to find specific networks like from

information exchange on career and employability as

Linkedin, among others.

The use of niche social networks can also be seen

in even more specific environments, as the

application of the sharing of medical information

among patients on social networks (Lefebvre and

Bornkessel, 2013), the recent growth in the use of

Enterprise Social Networking - ESN for sharing

information among people who share business

interests and activities (Berger et al. 2014) and the

introduction of social networks in Enterprise

Resource Planning - ERP systems (Gao et al. 2014)

are some examples.

The type of niche social network that this paper

focuses on is the reading social network, since the

lack of studies on this kind of website is remarkable.

In this context, the analysis of four reading social

networks is proposed as follows:

 LibraryThing: It aims to provide users with the

option to catalogue and organize books, besides

visiting the catalogues shared by other users to

exchange reading suggestions (LibraryThing,

2015);

 Shelfari: It aims to create a global community of

readers. It is also possible to build a virtual

bookshelf that becomes available to the public, to

participate in discussion groups and interact with

authors and publishers (Shelfari, 2015);

 GoodReads: It premises on the sharing of books

among friends. It also allows the creation of a

virtual bookshelf and also enables tagging of

books that have been read, currently read or

reading wish lists. It has functions to write reviews

and exchange opinions in discussion groups, as

well as mechanisms for reading recommendation,

based on the analysis of massive information in

order to make appropriate suggestions for the

reader’s taste (GoodReads, 2015);

 Skoob: Brazilian website, it allows users to create

a virtual bookshelf with the possibility of

displaying what they have read, what they are

reading and what they still intend to read. Sharing

opinions and obtaining suggestions through review

and discussion groups are other tools available in

Skoob (Skoob, 2015).

The software quality criteria proposed in this

study were selected based on two methods of

analysis: the international standard ISO/IEC 25010

(ISO/IEC, 2011) and the quality analysis standard

proposed by Hasan and Abuelrub (Hasan and

Abuelrub, 2011). The selection of these two methods

was made in order to ensure greater coverage of the

analysis, since the international standard ISO/IEC

25010 own criteria applicable to any software system,

being of general use; already the standard proposed

by Hasan and Abuelrub is specific to websites,

ensuring compliance with the particularities of this

type of system. Therefore, it was considered that the

combined use of these two methods of assessment is

sufficient for the correct analysis of such system.

The international standard ISO/IEC consists of

eight categories that provide a consistent terminology

to analyse different types of software. Figure 1 shows

the set of categories and their respective criteria.

Figure 1: Quality criteria described in ISO / IEC 25010

(ISO/IEC, 2010).

The method described by Hasan and Abuelrub

(Hasan and Abuelrub, 2011) consists of criteria

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commonly used by web designers and developers to

improve the image and the organization of their

website on the Internet. Figure 2 shows the set of

categories and their criteria.

Figure 2: Quality criteria described in Hasan and Abuelrub

(Hasan and Abuelrub, 2011).

In order to prove the efficiency and accuracy of

these two methods of assessment, there are studies

that use these two methods to evaluate different types

of web systems (Cebi, 2013; Al-Khalifa, 2014).

Based on this scenario, we see a gap in the literature

regarding the quality analysis of social networks,

more specifically the reading social networks.

Altough the quality analysis of a social network

should consider sociological and user experience

aspects (Olsina, Sassano and Mich, 2008), this paper

highlight the technical parameters in detriment of

social parameters, but without compromising them.

3 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

On the creation of quality criteria, to support the

decision on whether or not to select a given quality

criterion, two inquiries were defined, both applied to

each of the criteria established in the ISO/IEC

standard and also in the method proposed by Hasan

and Abuelrub, defined as follows:

 Verification of equivalent criteria among the

methods considered: being a criterion of ISO/IEC

equivalent to a criterion proposed by the Hasan and

Abuelrub method only one was maintained in

order to eliminate the observed redundancy;

 Verification of inadequate criteria to the analysis

of reading social networks: all criteria that meet

this requisite were discarded, regardless of which

method contains the mentioned criterion. Different

factors were considered for disposal, such as lack

of adherence to the context of social networks or

the impossibility of access to the source code and

server information.

It should be noted that, in order to facilitate the

understanding of the website quality criteria used to

analyse the reading social networks, it is stressed that

the classification adopted as well as the proposed

organization, prioritized the style established on the

method described by Hasan and Abuelrub (2011),

since this method is specific for the quality analysis of

websites. Therefore, the following criteria were

grouped into four categories: Contents, Design,

Organization and Friendly Interface.

For the website analysis, a percentual scale of

adherence to criterion was used, i. e., the higher the

percentage score, the greater is the suitability of the

analysed system to the criterion. Being adherent to a

certain criterion means to meet, at least in part, what

this criterion requires.

The analysis enabled the identification of

deficiencies in the current reading social networks, as

well as the essential features to this niche, in order to

direct the development of a new website named

"MyLibrary" so that it meets the established quality

criteria.

The main features built into “MyLibrary" were:

allow the user to add books to their bookshelves

which have been read, currently read and wish lists;

visualize a variety of book reviews; add any book and

its information into the website database; locate users

and interact with them through messages and profiles

previews.

The main objective of creating this website was to

benefit the users and developers of social networks.

For users, the contribution is to improve the quality

and usability of the proposed reading social network,

in order to avoid discouraging experiences. For

developers, the study and development of websites

based on quality standards, not only reading social

networks but any niche social network, can contribute

to the achievement of a quality effective solution.

For the usability evaluation, two different groups

of users were invited by e-mail, one of them called

experienced users - made up of users accustomed to

using reading social networks; and the other group

called inexperienced users - made up of users who

never had contact with this type of system before.

Then, the website and the selected quality criteria

were presented to the users, clarifying the purpose of

evaluation and giving a three day deadline.

For each category evaluated, the user has assigned

a rate, being: 1- when there is little or no adherence to

the criteria of the category (met criteria ≤ 20%); 2-

when there is partial adherence to criteria of the

A Qualitative Approach to Develop Niche Social Networks - A Reading Social Networks Case Study

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category (20% < met criteria < 80%); or 3- when there

is high or full adherence to criteria of the category

(met criteria ≥ 80%).

4 RESULTS

The procedure followed for the selection of criteria

from the ISO/IEC and the Hasan and Abuelrub

method can be seen in the Venn diagram shown in

Figure 3. As a result, the criteria for the analysis of

reading social networks are presented in Figure 4.

The reason for the disposal of the criteria

"Analysis" "Testability", "Modificability",

"Modularity", "Accountability" and "Adaptability", is

the lack of access to the websites source codes. For

the criteria "Maturity", "Fault tolerance" and

"Coexistence", there is no knowledge of the data from

the servers.

The "Use of resources" criteria and "Capacity",

besides the lack of knowledge of the data from the

servers, the bandwidth where websites are hosted is

unknown. It is also observed that the criteria

"Integrity" and "Non-repudiation" of ISO/IEC 25010

(ISO/IEC, 2011) were complemented the the criterion

"Security/Privacy" by Hasan and Abuelrub (Hasan

and Abuelrub, 2011) and the criteria

"Interoperability", "Reusability" and "Installability"

were added to the category "Friendly Interface". To

present the results obtained through the analysis, a

grouping by category was done, allowing a

comparison between the results for each website.

To analyse the category “Contents” the following

aspects were considered in each of the criteria:

 Accuracy: The presence of typing and grammatical

mistakes in random pages of each website,

disregarding users' texts;

 Update: Display of the date of updates done on the

website;

 Authority: Presentation of information on the

creators and employees of the website, as well as

physical address and copyright identification;

 Multilanguage and Culture: It was established that

the website would be available in its native

language and in English. When the native

language is English, it should also be available in

another language. If the website presents

discussion groups and do not provide explicit

biased information, it will be considered that it

complies with different cultures;

 Objective: Analysis of advertisements that can

confuse the user as to the purpose of the website;

 Relevance: Analysis of the presentation of goals,

customers, products, services and photos in order

to reduce the fear of customer to perform any sort

of transaction;

 Variety of Presentation: A higher score was

awarded to websites which present information in

different formats (text, video, audio).

Figure 3: Selection of Quality Criteria.

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Figure 4: Selected Quality Criteria.

As a result, it was observed that all websites meet

the "Accuracy" criterion. Skoob does not fully meet

"Update" and "Authority" criteria, as it display the

dates of its updates or information on its creators or

physical address. Under “Multilanguage and Culture

", it is emphasized that LibraryThing is available in

over 50 languages, while Shelfari and Skoob are

available only in their native languages.

To analyse the category “Design” the following

aspects were considered in each of the criteria:

 Appropriate: Balancing of the pages in relation to

images, colours, texts and number of screens;

 Attractive: Existence of innovative aspects in the

page design;

 Colours: Appropriate use of colours in order to not

interfere in the reading of texts;

 Images/Sounds/Videos: There is presence of

alternative texts for all non-textual elements.

Elements displayed by third party websites were

not considered;

 Text: Analysis of text display. Negative aspects of

this criterion are the presence of whole texts

written in capital letters, presence of a scroll bar

that hides information, blank spaces and lack of

standardization in the size of fonts.

In the category Design, it was observed that all the

websites meet the criterion "Colours". LibraryThing

does not meet the criterion "Appropriate ", as it

presents too many screens per page. Shelfari got the

best evaluation on the criterion "Attractive", since it

was considered innovative for presenting

bookshelves on users’ libraries. Regarding the

criterion "Images/Sounds/ Videos", it can be seen that

none of the websites presents alternative texts for

non-textual elements; in addition, Skoob does not

have a well-defined pattern to the size of your images.

To analyse the category “Organization” the

following aspects were considered in each of the

criteria:

 Consistency: Use of the same layout for all pages

of the website;

 Index: Presentation of an index or link bringing

together all the website pages in its first pages;

 Links: Correct functioning of the links and

checking colour change after accessing random

pages. Presence of assistance links (home, top,

back) and links to related websites;

 Logo: Verify if the site logo is visible on every

page;

 Map: Verify existence of a website map or a

navigation menu for the user to know which page

he is currently visiting.

In the category Organization, it is emphasized that

most websites meet established criteria, except for the

criteria "Index" and "Links", due to the fact that none

of the websites provide index or links to direct to the

top of the page and also the fact that some links do not

change colours after being clicked on.

To analyse the category “Friendly Interface” the

following aspects were considered in each of the

criteria:

 Reliability: Download time test. For testing, an

Internet connection of 2Mb/s was used;



Customization: The user is enable to modify the

pages of the website;

 Installability: Verification of websites operation

on mobile systems. For testing we used two

operating systems - Android and iOS, with default

mobile browsers;

 Interactivity: Analysis of the existence of pages

with frequently asked questions and user feedback

pages;

 Interoperability: It was observed if the website

exchanges information with other systems,

including other social networks like Facebook,

Twitter, blogs and third party websites to buy

books;

 Reusability: Provision of Application

Programming Interface (API) for use in other

systems;

 Security/Privacy: Presentation of mechanisms to

make secure transactions and possibility to

changes user confidentiality settings;

 Usability: The performance of each of the websites

in three search engines on the Internet was

analysed - Google, Baidu and Yahoo. Ease of use

was also considered for this criterion.

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In the category Friendly Interface, all websites

obtained a good performance in "Reliability"

criterion, with good page download times. It is

important to point out the absence of any resource to

meet the criterion "Customization" in three out of the

four analysed websites, the exception being the

Shelfari, which allows customization of the user

bookshelf. Regarding the criterion "Reusability",

only LibraryThing and GoodReads websites provide

APIs for integration with other websites. The analysis

of all categories can be seen in Figure 5.

4.1 Reading Social Network

“Mylibrary”

"MyLibrary" website was built as a conventional web

system, based on the functions of the studied

websites, applying the selected quality criteria.

In order to meet all criteria in the category

Content, measures were taken in order to avoid

grammatical or typing mistakes in website texts. In

addition, daily updates were performed and

presented, as well as information on creation and

Through the use of a plugin provided by Google

Translate, the website is available in over 70

languages. All sections of the website provide a

description previous to any content and avoid biased

information such as advertising not directed to the

public of the website. Finally, links were also made

available to third party websites that may interest

"MyLibrary" users.

With the purpose of meeting all criteria in the

category Design, images, colors and texts were

balanced and there are few screens on the page. The

design is suitable, since it follows the pattern of the

analysed social networks.

To meet all criteria in the category Organization,

measures were taken such as using the same layout

for every page, an index on the home page as well as

a link to the top of the page and a section of frequently

asked questions (FAQ). Also, external websites open

in new pages, visited links change color after being

clicked on and the website logo is shown on every

page.

In the category Friendly Interface, the website

"MyLibrary" presented download time under 4s. Its

use is also possible via mobile systems. It is possible

to customize the website according to the user's

desire, who can select which shelf should be

presented in the foreground on the user’s profile

(read, currently read or wish list).

The presence of a search box at the top of every

page also influences the fulfillment of all the criteria

in this category. Users may obtain their bookshelves

in text format and the system database is available on

request, meeting the criterion of "Reusability". It is

possible for the user to choose what information

should be viewed by anyone, meeting the "Security"

criterion. Finally, "MyLibrary" is easy to use and

understand, as it features a simple and intuitive

design. Figure 6 shows a profile page example that

demonstrates the fulfillment of the criterias.

Figure 5: Analysis of the reading social networks.

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Figure 6: Profile page of "MyLibrary".

4.2 “MyLibrary” Evaluation

Following the proposed methodology, the usability

evaluation was carried on by users invited by email,

which used "MyLibrary" for 3 consecutive days.

Fifteen people were selected from a sample of college

students, forming two groups: Group 1 – 5

inexperienced users; and Group 2 – 10 experienced

users.

Figure 7 shows the results with the scores granted

by the users.

Figure 7: User analysis about MyLibrary in each category.

From the analysis of the scores given by the users

to "MyLibrary", it is observed that there was no

significant difference between the responses of the

two groups, which enables the conclusion that the

usability of "MyLibrary" was guaranteed. Both

groups evaluated the proposed solution very

positively. For the rates equal to 2, the evaluators’

explanations were mainly focused on two aspects: the

simple and intuitive design is however, unattractive;

and lacks of customization options. Suggestions for

improvements, such as the creation of a dynamic

guide for the moment when user signs up and also

extra options, such as the inclusion of a book while

viewing other shelves, will be considered for a future

version of "MyLibrary".

5 CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this paper was to contribute to the

users and developers of niche social networks through

the study of quality criteria for websites. Given the

widespread use of social networks and the trend of

new niche social networks being presented, the

reading social networks were chosen, a niche that had

not yet been analysed from a qualitative perspective.

For this purpose, two goals were set: to analyse

reading social networks used in different situations

and locations, based on criteria selected from the

study of quality analysis methods, in order to

understand their strengths and weaknesses; and to

develop a reading social network which should be

able to meet the quality criteria and thus address the

gaps identified in the social networks of similar

purpose previously analysed.

Regarding the first goal, four websites with a large

number of users, which are used in different

countries, were selected: LibraryThing, Shelfari,

GoodReads and Skoob. The analysis of these

websites guided the subsequent creation of a website

not only based on functions widely used by the users

of this type of system, but also on quality criteria that

had not been currently met in the analysed scenario.

In relation to the development of a website that would

both meet the quality criteria and be able to serve as

a reference for building similar websites and increase

user satisfaction, it can be said that it was

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accomplished by “MyLybrary”, based on the results

of the performed evaluation. As previously stated,

over 80% of users have granted maximum

satisfaction scores regarding the fulfillment of

“MyLibrary" quality criteria. Therefore, considering

that the criteria selected from ISO/IEC 25010

(ISO/IEC, 2011) and Hasan and Abuelrub (Hasan and

Abuelrub, 2011) were followed during the

construction of "MyLibrary" and the result has met

the expectations of users, it is hereby proved the

efficiency of the use of these criteria in creating new

websites, especially when it comes to niche social

networks.

In future works, we aim expand quality analysis

of reading social networks and niche social networks

including other quality standards with greater focus

on content (Olsina, Sassano and Mich, 2008), and

also considering the social behavior of the users of

this type of system as a way to quality analysis (Jiang

et al., 2013).

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