Nike Plus: A Me to We Case Study

    As noted above, the social Web is a breeding ground for stage four environments. It's easy to look at a service like Flickr, which connects people socially through photographs, and say, "that's digital. Museums can't do that." But one of my favorite examples of a successful participatory experience which incorporates all me-to-we design levels is physical. It's based on a frequently-disliked, voluntary activity that takes place all over the world. No, I'm not talking about visiting museums. I'm talking about running, and a platform called Nike Plus (Nike+). 

    Nike+ is a combined iPod and shoe sensor product that allows users to track every step of their runs. It provides real-time data about your progress as you run, and later, catalogs your mileage so you can review the data online. You can create goals for yourself (against which your progress is automatically tracked) and challenge other users (both known and strangers) to run at your pace, complete a number of miles, etc. You can also create motivational playlists for the iPod to give you a "power-up" audio boost when you most need it. Start to lag, and your favorite song will get you back on track.

    Nike+ uses me-to-we design brilliantly to support a product, an activity, a community, and ultimately, healthy lifestyles. Let's take a closer look at how this all comes together.

    Nike+ is built on two products: shoes and music. Together, these can be seen as providing a stage one experience. Users can consume the music (as the pavement consumes their shoes). While these consumptive experiences are nice, there’s nothing special about the Nike+ environment in this regard.

    On stage two, Nike+ offers its distinctive selling point: real-time data tracking. It is responsive to your actions and provides you with feedback to influence further action. The tracking gives users points for running, incentivizing some users to reach their athletic goals with virtual trophies and ribbons. As with the gas consumption displays on hybrid vehicles, Nike+ users report that the experience of being tracked actually improves their performance. It's no coincidence that Nike+ provides both real-time and post-run statistics—you need both to adjust behavior real-time, and to motivate future improvement.

    The game-line tracking system makes for an intoxicating individual stage two experience. However, this system is most valuable while you are actually using the Nike+ on a run. When you stop running or looking at your stats on the web, the memories of trophies and goals slip away. Why run? It's not even a human encouraging you—just a stupid machine.

    And that’s where stages three and four come in. Stage three introduces other users into the mix for a secondary level of motivation. In the online environment for Nike+, users can see the goals and runs set by other people, and use them as inspiration. If fifty thousand other people can run ten miles, maybe you can too.

    Then Nike+ goes further, offering social stage four experiences via “collective challenges,” in which users team up based on a wide range of similarities or affinities (gender, age, political affiliation, athletic ability) to accomplish shared running goals. Here's where the power of "we" comes in. When an individual engages in a collective challenge, she doesn’t just focus on her running goals while running or checking out personal stats post-run. Now, she has external goals for which she is accountable to virtual teammates. She’s motivated to run so she can meet the challenge, and contribute to the team. Here's how one enthusiastic blogger put it:

       "And the coolest part about Nike+ running? Like any good online game, you can challenge your friends. First to 100 miles? Fastest 5-mile time? Your call. These challenges wind up being incredibly inspiring — running against good friend and athletic powerhouse J. John Afryl kept me on my toes.. — and they're also incredibly fun. Logging in after a long run, uploading your data, and seeing where you are in the standings, is a pretty awesome way to wrap up your exercise. And more importantly, sitting around the house, wondering what to do, thinking about jogging, and then realizing that if you don't go jogging tonight you're going to lose points and slip in the standings — now that's true, videogame motivation." (http://www.cabel.name/2006/08/multiplayer-game-of-year.html)

    The stage four environment encourages customers to think about the Nike+ product even when they are not using it. The gaming and tracking make it fun and addicting, but the architecture of participation makes it pervasive.

    And what about stage five? One of Nike's goals--and a major component of their online presence--is to encourage people to run together.  The company sponsors races and running groups all over the world. Nike understands that these mass social events are only as successful as the motivation of the people participating--and thus they design social engagement into the environment of products like Nike+. There are many Nike+-based forums and opportunities for meeting up with real people in your real neighborhood to go running. The social experience of Nike+ is so powerful that users have even clamored for virtual ways to "run together." Users have argued that running is often a social activity, and that they want to have that same social experience via Nike+. It's not crazy to imagine a future version of Nike+ that allows you to talk real-time to a running partner half a world away as you both navigate the streets. Without the participatory architecture supporting it, no one would want such a feature. But through networked challenges, Nike+ users appreciate and desire opportunities to interact with each other.

    Think about what a strange feat Nike pulled off with this product. Nike took a non-screen-based, often anti-social, occasionally loathed or feared activity--running--and turned it into a social game. It transformed the motivation to run from being about exercise to being about social competition. Nike+ took an uncontrolled venue--the streets and trails used by runners all over the world--and created a compelling experience around it. For its users, Nike+ transforms running into a pervasive, fun, socially-driven experience. And if Nike could do it for something as feared and despised as running often is, surely we can do it for cultural institutions.

    In the following chapters, we will dive deeply into each of the stages of participation and explore how museum-going, like running, can evolve into a more exciting, dynamic, social experience. The second chapter focuses on designing personalized entrypoints to museum experiences (stages one and two). The third chapter focuses on network effects and the social experiences made possible via networked content (stages three and four). The fourth chapter digs more deeply into how museum content experiences can serve as social objects (stage four). The fifth chapter takes a closer look at a variety of specific visitor contribution and participation techniques that contribute to an overall social experience (stages four and five). And the sixth chapter takes a wider look at all of these techniques and provides recommendations for how to pitch participatory projects, manage them, and evaluate their value to your institution. 

    And after that, we’ll go for a run.

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