This month's Frame: Umberto Eco, platforms and Model Users
Eco’s concept of the Model Reader illuminates the difference between a platform strategy and product strategy, and helps explain the unique challenges of the former.
Does Facebook have an opinion about how it is used?
Facebook (or as it is now called, Meta) is one of the most debated companies in history. Critics suggest that the platform exploits base human desires in exchange for attention. They argue executives don’t care how people use their platform as long as they do. Supporters argue that Facebook is merely a mirror image of society at large. For them, negative externalities are a reflection on humanity, not Facebook.
Interestingly, both these positions start with the same underlying assumption: Facebook has no preference for how it is used, only that it is used.
The suggestion that Facebook lacks an overall vision for how it wants to be used separates it from companies such as Apple, that do. As a neutral platform, Facebook has no Model User.
The framework
In his book “The Role of the Reader”, semiotician Umberto Eco outlines the concept of the Model Reader. For Eco, there are two types of text. The first type is written without a particular audience in mind. The second considers its audience carefully and writes specifically for them.
Eco argues that Ian Fleming’s James Bond series is written without a Model Reader. Fleming offers a simple narrative path and signposts the intentions of the story along the way. For Fleming, it is obvious how the story should be read, so there is no need for him to consider how it might be interpreted. He writes Bond for a “universal” reader rather than specific ones.
Franz Kafka’s “The Trial”, conversely, is less literal and invites deeper reading. On the surface it is a trivial criminal story, but the author has designed the novel to be read on other levels too. Kafka needed to carefully consider who the book was for to ensure the novel is understood at these other levels. He wrote “The Trial” with Model Readers in mind.
Eco observes that texts without Model Readers are more likely to solicit criticism. It is precisely the assumed “universality” of James Bond that invites alternative, unintended readings. Because it is such a basic story, the reader can distance themselves from the text and critique it from different positions (feminist, orientalist etc.).
Conversely, when reading Kafka, your moves as a reader are circumscribed by the knowingness of the text. Interpretations are “inscribed within the textual strategy” of the author. The complexity of “The Trial” challenges the audience to decode the correct ways of reading it to perform the role of a Model Reader. The reader is thus interpolated and implicated in the text itself.
Using the framework
Eco’s theory of the Model Reader is useful for thinking about the distinctions between platforms and products. Platforms are designed to enable specific usages, but they don’t have an overarching view of who their Model Users are. This invites unintended interpretations, behaviours and outcomes. Platforms are designed for use cases but not users.
Like James Bond, Facebook is popular precisely because of the way it can be adapted to what new audiences want: its simple tooling doesn’t have an opinion on how it should be used. And like James Bond, it is also much more liable to criticism because this disinterest in a Model User gives rise to unintended consequences.
Products are designed to serve use cases too, but their theory of use is more holistic. Products also consider their Model Users.
Apple actively thinks about the kind of person it wants to use its products. In contrast to Facebook, Apple’s marketing paints a picture of a specific Model User. This Model User values creative expression but is conservative about their data privacy. They believe in the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with technology.
Apple’s Model User is then reinforced through the user experience: in the way iOS prompts users to limit their screen time and frequently review their privacy settings. Or in the way that App Store recommendations are curated along Apple’s editorial guidelines.
Apple has a clear Model of what “good” usage is, which it invites the User to perform. And like the Kafka Reader, the Apple User feels good about performing the role that has been prescribed for them.
Does Meta have a Model User?
During the recent launch of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg painted a detailed picture of what he intends the Metaverse to be. The presentation specified multiple use cases: from VR gaming and socialising to mixed reality concert-going and virtual collaboration.
What was absent was an overarching philosophy that unites these emerging experiences. The Metaverse was introduced as an open world in which Meta provides the scaffolding but not the substance. As such it is clear that Zuckerberg wants Meta, like Facebook, to be a flexible platform rather than a set of highly aligned products.
By designing for Use Cases without Users Zuckerberg is setting Meta up for rapid growth. It remains to be seen whether a lack of Model Users will mean that Meta, like Facebook, is vulnerable to critique.
News
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