Hello, Clubhouse — a UX analysis
Have you ever heard about Clubhouse? The first time I heard about this app was last May 2020, with this article from Wired “What is Clubhouse, and Why Does Silicon Valley Care?”. Clubhouse is the first social media app only based on audio chat (available on iOS and Android now). On the app, you choose different interests to see which “rooms” are live and the ones which are coming soon. You can enter a room, just listen or participate (or leave it quietly) like a virtual conference or party (depending on your interests !). Clubhouse is (for the moment) an invite-only app which means, only Clubhouse users can send a limited number on invites to relatives who wants to “enter” on the app. Only one year later, Clubhouse is THE voice app (still in beta) valuated $100 million.
This article is about :
- Clubhouse VS all social media: its specificities that create barriers to entry
- A quick qualitative study on users (and PMs) say about Clubhouse experience
- 3 ideas to improve Clubhouse user experience
- The strategic challenge ahead: how to attract GenZ? Psychological distance and proximity concepts in social sciences
Attack of the clones
Due to the success of Clubhouse, several other social media apps are trying to launch their audio functionality: Spotify and Locker Room, Twitter and Spaces, Facebook is testing Hotline, Linkedin has confirmed its interest in developing a feature similar to rooms, Slack too…
“What Clubhouse did is they built a brand-new format that will have lasting power. And I think that’s why you’re having this attack of the clones.” Brandon Ross, partner and analyst at Lightshed Partners
Despite the arrival of these social media giants, Clubhouse shouldn’t be shaken, according to Josh Constine, a former TechCrunch reporter turned principal at SignalFire, a San Francisco-based VC firm.
The mainstream apps “are already bloated, already sort of bursting at the seams with features” Constine said.
So it won’t be so easy for the “old generation” social media to include a new audio feature among all the others without spoiling their overall user experience. Too many features, too much “noise” for the users… Besides, their business models are also very different: Facebook, Twitter and others are on an advertising model, Clubhouse wants to focus on direct monetization on creators (with Clubhouse payments).
The barrier to entry is therefore fragile, but it is there: Clubhouse is the first one dedicated solely to audio, but it must learn quickly to grow! For FastCompany, the main advantages of Clubhouse are:
- intimacy between the participants in a room: the voice creates an impossible proximity with the text (the sorrow in the voice, the sarcasm… on sometimes sensitive and intimate subjects)
- serendipity: we browse Clubhouse to explore the rooms and stop here, or elsewhere, according to individual preferences (as TikTok) and not according to the preferences of our social circle, those we follow, as with other social media
- the audio format also allows multitasking and can follow the user everywhere (on the road, at work, at the gym…)
Beware however of privacy risks for the user, as the data used is considered vulnerable. Moreover, with live content, it is difficult to moderate abusive comments or to check fake news. The quality of the content on Clubhouse and the security of the users are the main weaknesses of Clubhouse according to the press.
What users (and PMs) say about Clubhouse?
Out of curiosity, I landed on Reddit where users and PMs were discussing the growing interest in Clubhouse. I conducted a short qualitative study based on the quotes to bring out the main strengths and weaknesses of Clubhouse.
(+) Quotes on Clubhouse Strengths
Among its strengths, Clubhouse offers an easy-to-use interface to access a wide variety of topics (as serendipity presented above). You can chat with influencers in a much more natural and direct way through voice chat (as Justin Bieber did to promote his new album Purpose). A new way to foster proximity to influencers:
User-friendly interface: “The simplicity of the interface is inspiring”
Variety of subjects: “I like the aspect of tuning in to a virtual conference/convention on-demand where you can pick from a variety of topics you want to learn more about”
Build relationships with influencers: “Cool thing is that you can speak with founders, influencers, and celebrities-can’t do that on any social media apps”
Live/real-time: “Clubhouse provides another way for influencers to connect with followers in REAL TIME”
(-) Quotes on Clubhouse Weaknesses
But at the same time, many weaknesses weigh on Clubhouse user experience. For the moment, the algorithm does not allow to recommend really interesting rooms according to each user. The quality of the rooms in the long term is also questioned: will the rooms always be relevant? Normally it should also rely on the algorithm to redirect the user to rooms according to his preferences.
Moreover, audio favors proximity which can be a drawback for some users. Daring to speak (in front of a visible number of participants) is much more engaging than writing a post or a tweet. Like a student in a classroom! So audience engagement and participation is a major issue for Clubhouse:
Rooms’ recommendations: “In regards to improving the app, I think they need to work on their algorithm because it’s really hard to find new rooms. The rooms that show up first on your feed are strictly based on your following list which can get boring really fast”
Quality of the rooms: “I can also see the quality becoming a problem potentially, similar to what Quora is facing. In its early days, Quora had some really high-quality content from experts in specific fields investing teh time to answer specific questions. Seeing Quora become almost a gossip column of the web is quite disheartening”
Engage the audience: “Rooms must engage the audience/listeners or it would be better off as a podcast”
(+/-) Quotes both for and against Clubhouse
In addition, some users disagree about the value of taking a room in the evening, after the workday. For some users, participating to a room cannot become a viable habit in their daily lives (see blog article from Nir Eyal, bestselling author of “Hooked”):
Rooms at night: “I’m also a fan of the fact that there are lots of night convos because I’m way too busy to participate during the day”
“It sucks most the interesting rooms I’d want to join happen at night. There’s also no real way to engage in your own time. You kind of have to just be there when things happen. I don’t really know if I personally can make time for that often”
How to improve Clubhouse user experience
While many apps for exploring offerings (Deliveroo, Netflix, Airbnb) allow you to scroll down to see categories and then select categories horizontally, Clubhouse does not (yet) facilitate this exploration of live and upcoming rooms.
The app chooses to scroll (almost) endlessly like Twitter, but the value proposition is not at all the same. Clubhouse relies on immediacy for “Start a room” while the usage seems to be more like podcasting or events, conferences, conventions where the majority of the audience is passive. And there, one gets lost on Clubhouse: the lack of categorization and access to the search bar (top left) makes it difficult to find relevant rooms.
Step by step the algorithms will learn the preferences of each user and refine the rooms put forward. The problem is when the user has already abandoned the experience (like me!).
So here are 3 ideas (among many others, it’s up to you!) to rethink the user experience:
- Avoid scrolling and categorise rooms
- Put the Search bar near the thumb
- Rate the quality of the discussion at the end of the room to speed up the learning of preferences for each user
This can also be used to give a public rating to room organizers, to go along with the Clubhouse Creators strategy (and thus have certified creators, well rated…). The call-to-action so important for Clubhouse which is the “Start a Room” remains at an accessible place (near the thumb!) as on Twitter.
Below a (kind of) prototype (I’m NOT a graphic designer ! Please be nice 🙏):
The challenge ahead: create proximity with GenZ
In its Medium article “Clubhouse is Dead (It Just Doesn’t Know It Yet)”, Derick David lists several limits to Clubhouse development. Between them : how to attract GenZ, the most important social media consumers. He says : “GenZs have the majority of technology consumption nowadays, and it’s worth noting that their psychological needs must be researched, understood, and served.” How will Clubhouse compete with Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram to appeal to younger people?
In social sciences, many disciplines (psychology, marketing, management…) have studied proximity as a a concept that applies to different situations: physical distance in space, relationships between people or with organizations (brands, companies, proximity of an event in time… as there is a spatial and non-spatial proximity, a more cognitive and emotional one. In marketing, we focus on non-spatial proximity of course to better understand user experience based on their perceptions, representations and attitudes (Lenglet & Mencarelli, 2020).
In the case of Clubhouse, the app must create proximity with GenZ with more relevant content for them, with more influencers close to them. By a phenomenon of psychological distance, users can experience temporal distance (today VS in one year), spatial distance (here VS over there), social distance (me VS others) and hypothetical distance (probable VS improbable events) (Trope & Liberman, 2010).
With the “real time” rooms, users experience a lower temporal distance which influences other dimensions (spatial, social and hypothetical). Using relevant influencers to attract GenZ would reinforce this phenomenon with a low social distance (“similarity between GenZ users and influencers”) so proximity. However, too much proximity creates negative emotions (lack of intimacy, feeling of intrusion…). So be careful with the recurrence or the quantity of appointments proposed, which, if too numerous, could be perceived as too invasive and harmful to social life.
Sources:
Lenglet, F., & Mencarelli, R. (2020). Proximity in marketing: An integrating theoretical framework and research agenda. Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 35(4), 99–124.
Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological review, 117(2), 440.
