**This video is a basic, user created video on how and why to use Tumblr. It has an interesting part in it that describes how to use HTML and I felt that it could highlight my point of the HTML usage**
Tumblr’s UX, or User Experience Design, UI, User Interface Design, and IA, Interface Architecture, are all widely liked accepted by its users. The blend well in a way that makes it a prime example of a good networking site.The UX and the UI work well together and make the website easier to use than even Facebook. The design, both on the website and the app, is very seamless. The color scheme on both the app and website platforms are easy on the eyes and neutral toned. Having the icons large and different colors on the website encourages users to share more content than they would if they icons were one color. On the app, organizing the feed with the navigation on the bottom allows users to take in as much content as possible, encouraging more use of the app. Overall, the UX and UI do a good job of presenting an easy-to-use website for its users. Tumblrs’ audience is mostly millenials; we love simple and easy apps and social media channels. If something takes to long to figure out, wer are less likely to get to know it – we would more likely find an easier alternative to it.
When it comes to the Interface Architecture, Tumblr did a great job of not having too many subpages and extraneous pages or things to click. The pages and their subpages are few so that the website itself doesn’t detract from the interaction. Since Tumblr is a microblogging site, they have included different ways to customize pages. They made a good decision to have two ways for users to be able to do this: either with the basic options or by altering HTML settings, which is something that could be used for more advanced site users. This HTML feature was actually very popular in the early 2010’s, and people spent large amounts of time studying and learning how to change their HTML settings to make their page the best possible.
A little about myself. I am a GSU student majoring in marketing. With graduation approaching, I am beginning to think seriously about what it is I’m passionate about and what I really want to do. I have career aspirations in Media (preferably television, and digital media). The popularity of digital media is amazing and gives everyone equal opportunity to be curate content and be seen.
I also researched Tumblr for social media marketing midterm. While I agree with some of the comparisons Angela has made between Tumblr and Twitter. I have my own take on the two.
Angela was correct in the basic concepts of the two social media apps. You can post images, text, GIFS, and videos on both sites. But the design of each of the apps has significant differences.
Tumblr does not have a word count limit the way twitter does. It leaves users to be much more creative. With the microblogging nature of Tumblr, it encourages users to be creative, use text and images combined to be artistic as well as share information. It is also good for a laugh. Twitter, on the other hand, is designed for short exchanges and to blurt out thoughts and short statements. Many Twitter users just blurt out random short thoughts on their timeline. Twitter also uses an interface that provides threads. These threads can get long and include replies and initially can be a bit confusing (not knowing to read from top to bottom or bottom to top). Tumblr is much more simple when it comes to their reblogging format. It’s much easier to follow the path of the reblogs. It’s almost similar to a long line of telephone.
I agree with Angela about the fact that Tumblr has more features. You can post pictures, videos, quotes, GIFS, Audio, and links, it has a simpler interface and is easier to use. But I would say that without a doubt Twitter is much more popular at the moment. Twitter is able to stand the test of time along with the Facebooks and Instagram’s because of its text-based nature. It differentiates itself just enough to hold the user’s attention.
As of July 2018, Tumblr had 425.7 million active blogs. This number has been on a steady incline since May of 2011, according to Statista.
GENDER
According to a 2015 study, 11% of female internet users and 10% of male internet users were users of Tumblr. Overall, Tumblr using is equally divided between men and women. This is different than other platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, where the users are comprised more of women than men. Twitter was seen to have more male users than female users.
AGE
Most social media platforms are most popular with Millennials and Gen-Zers. Tumblr is no different. Like Instagram and Twitter, Tumblr’s audience is mostly comprised of young adults, with 20% being aged 18-29. The next highest age group was the 30-49 age group with 11%. From there the percentage of users trails off with less than 10% for users 50 and up.
LOCATION
By location, the United States had the largest regional distribution of online traffic to the Tumblr website. The United States had 33.2%, while the United Kingdom had 5.6%, Brazil had 4.44%, Canda had 4.15%, and Germany had 3.66%. There appeared to be more urban users than rural users. Sixteen percent of users lived in urban areas, while 8 percent were in suburban areas and 3 percent were in rural areas. According to Pew Research, along with a more urban-leaning audience, they also have a more college-educated audience. Their audience is comprised of people that either completed some college or attained a full degree. “Like most other social networking services, Tumblr tends to skew toward the urban and educated. Seven percent of urban Internet users say they use Tumblr, as does the same percentage of online users with college degrees.” (Pew Research)
INCOME
The incomes of the users of Tumblr is very extreme, with the majority of them landing either on the $30,000 and under demographic and the $75,000 and over demographic. 16 % of users were a part of the $30,000 and under group, while 11% were a part of the 75,000+ group. Overall, there were more Tumblr users that earned $50,000 and less than $50,000 and up, which can lead you to believe that the Tumblr community is less affluent.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a pictorial representation of the life cycle stages that happen in technology. These stages mark the different periods, from conception to maturity and then widespread adoption. “[The] hype cycle’s stages are often used as reference points in marketing and technology reporting. Businesses can use the hype cycle to guide technology decisions in accordance with their level of comfort with risk.” (WhatIs) The five stages are 1) Technology Trigger, 2) Peak of Inflated Expectations, 3) Trough of Disillusionment, 4) Slope of Enlightenment, and 5) Plateau of Productivity.
Based on Garnet’s Hype Cycle, I would say that Tumblr falls on the Plateau of Productivity. The site has undergone most of the significant change that it is most likely going to make unless they decide to do a massive overhaul of the design. As a user myself, I have had a Tumblr account since 2011, roughly four years after conception. Over time, not much at all has changed with the interface. While this is good for loyal users like me, who are fine with this design, this is not good for potential new users, as they don’t have any new features to lure them in.
Going through the five stages, Tumblr has long since passed its’ “Technology Trigger” phase. This phase occurred in 2007 and earlier, in the beginning, stages of the site. Tumblr’s “Peak of Inflated Expectations.” The peak of this stage can be seen in 2014, where growth was at its’ top. From there Tumblr rapidly falls into its “Trough of Disillusionment,” where growth rapidly begins to fall from 2014 to now, 2018. This growth was 32.8% and fell to just 6.5% in 2018. Tumblr’s “Slope of Enlightenment” came in recent years in that the number of active Tumblrs steadily has grown. This cannot be seen as an increase in overall users, however, because users can have more than one Tumblr to their account. Based on this information thus far, I would say that Tumblr is in it’s Plateau of Productivity. While there are some increasing numbers, overall Tumblr is pretty stagnant, especially compared to power players like Twitter.
Created in 2007, Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking site. This website allows users to post different types of media, like videos, music, and GIFs, in addition to regular blog posts. You can either make your blog public or private and follow other users’ blogs, in addition to other great features.
Twitter is an online news and social networking site, created in 2006. The messages sent via this platform are called “Tweets.” The site used to have an infamous character limit of 140 characters, but this limit was doubled November of last year for most language except Japanse Korean and Chinese. Those with a Twitter account can post tweets but those without an account can only view them. Twitter has the option of tweeting via the app, website or through SMS.
These two platforms are the same in that they both are microblogging sites. Tumblr and Twitter’s interfaces are different but they have features that are similar. Tumblr’s app interface is simple, with a large feed where you see your content, an icon where you can add different types of content to your blog, and navigation icons on the bottom of the screen. You can add content like quotes, GIFs, text, and more to your blog. The icons at the bottom of the screen are the home, search, activity & messages, and profile buttons. Twitter’s app interface is similar in the way that the screen is set up: feed on most of the screen, navigation on the bottom and new post icon on the bottom corner of the screen. the only difference is really between the last two navigation icons on the bottom: where Tumblr has the activity & messages icon, Twitter has the notifications icon and where Tumblr has the profile icon, Twitter has the direct messages icon. Both interfaces are relatively simple, so I wouldn’t hold one over the other. I think that it would depend on personal preference as to which would be easier to use. I think personally, Twitter is easier for me to use, only because I spend more time on it.
When it comes to the features, I would say that Tumblr has more features. They have the ability to post more kinds of content. On Twitter you can post, images, videos, and polls. On. Tumblr you can post text, photos, quotes, links, chats, audio, and video. In this area, I feel that Tumblr has Twitter beat.
