Everyone wants to have the opportunity to shape their environment. If the environment is not malleable, people usually move away. This has been happening since time immemorial.
From history we know stories about groups of people who went looking for a place where they could influence the environment: in order to create a safe and more comfortable place for themselves. The same principle applies to online communities.
A good community knows what its members want to influence. This can differ within each community. Sometimes in the wave of digitalization people want to influence policies, procedures or topics. However, one aspect applies to every community: members always want to have the space to express themselves.
3Users must feel a sense of belonging
Users only feel comfortable in a community when they feel like they are part of the community. This group feeling can only arise when a community has the same norms and values. Belonging to a group can be expressed with visual elements that are characteristic of the group. Members can experience the group feeling when they encounter these visual symbols. An example of this is Apple. That company does very well with the Apple logo. The logo symbolizes design and originality.
Music can also function as a symbol and be just as powerful. For example, a country’s national using artificial intelligence in academic workanthem can be the binding factor of the population as a community. The opening music of Star Wars or Star Trek also evokes a sense of group feeling among fans of these film series. Visual group symbols are almost as old as humanity and are also common in modern digital communities. Corporate branding is just another form of symbolism south africa numbers that tries to achieve a similar effect of group feeling.
An online community is not just about
a logo or a house style, but the overall user experience. For example, an administrator of an Apple community is bound by completely different rules than an administrator of a community about babies. The visual symbols therefore represent not only recognisability but also the rules, protocols and customs of the community. All of this contributes to the user experience.