Invite to Group
From Social Patterns
Contents |
Example
Invite to group pattern on wakoopa.com
What
Most social network sites allow the formation of groups (or teams). For these groups to have a large adoption, you want to encourage users to get their contacts to join groups as well. With an invite to group function you allow users to do so directly on the site, and by doing so offering a low barrier to group promotion.
When
- Use when users want to share groups.
- Use when groups are beneficial to the community.
- Use when you want to help people find groups that are interesting to them.
How
- Display a link on the group page to invite friends
- Display a list of users (with avatar and name)
- Select users by clicking on them
- Optionally set an upper limit
- Allow users to add a personal message
- Send invitations to friends
Special Cases
In some cases groups can be invite-only or private, in which case joining a group is only possible via 'invite-to-group' functionality. In these cases it is necessary that the functionality is easy to find.
Accessibility
Both Wakoopa's and Facebook's implementation depends on javascript to work, but are navigable both by mouse and keyboard. For increased accessibility, a HTML-only form with checkboxes can be used, that will be replaced by more usable javascript powered functionality.
Known issues
Despite the alphabetical sorting, users with a lot of contacts will find this model more tedious to use. Facebook also implements a dynamic filter into their design pattern to compensate for users with a lot of contacts.
Why
Encourage group adoption and creation. Keeps the invitation system in the site itself, so there is a low barrier to invite friends.
Related Patterns
As Seen On
(Both links require you to be logged in before viewing the invite to group functionality)
- Wakoopa.com teams
- Facebook (Wakoopa app invite page on facebook)
Sources / Similar Patterns in Other Libraries
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