What is Social Translucence

The term ‘social translucence’ was developed in by Erickson, Smith, Kellogg, Laff, Richards and Bradner (1999). ‘Socially translucent systems’ are described as those digitally-based systems which provide social cues which afford accountability, awareness and visibility (op. cit.). These social cues in turn allow people to draw upon their expertise and social experience in structuring their interactions with others (Erickson and Kellogg, 2000). Erickson, Smith, Kellogg, Laff, Richards and Bradner (1999) describe certain actions which are possible in socially translucent systems—such as noticing, creating and conforming to social conventions; engaging in peer pressure and imitating others’ actions through observation (op. cit.). Social translucence as a design approach is also articulated in Erickson, Halverson, Kellogg, Laff and Wolf (2002). The ‘social’ in social translucence refers to providing socially salient cues. Translucence is a term used in preference to ‘transparence’—it is not an intention to make all socially salient cues visible, just some of them. Erickson and Kellogg (2000) note a tension between visibility and privacy in such systems, which also impacts on systems employing a social navigation approach—where there is a trade-off between allowing users to see the paths of others versus seeing the footprints of anonymised and merged use (Wexelblat and Maes, 1999). Cues are differentially available through space and are made use of in interactions (Erickson, Halverson, Kellogg, Laff and Wolf, 2002). One system of social translucence involves the notion of a social proxy, a minimalist form of visualisation of people or their activities (Erickson and Kellogg, 2002). These are part of bringing social cues into digital systems through an abstract approach of simple text and graphics (Erickson and Kellogg, 2002).