How to sort out the core process of the activity?

I don’t know if you have noticed that after you have played so many activities with different gameplays on the market, do you feel that some activities are similar for no reason?

For example, the “Annual Report” of NetEase Cloud Music/Douban Movie/Alipay/Mobike that is sure to come out at the end of every year, and the “New Year Keywords” that are sure to come out at the beginning of the year, etc. Although the themes and pages of these activities are different, the process of experiencing the activities is almost the same.

On this basis, let’s learn the second step of the basic process of “borrowing” activities: sorting out the core process of the activity.

In terms of how to sort out the core process of an activity, we will still talk about it according to the type of activity, from two aspects: how to sort out the process of simple single-threaded activities and complex multi-threaded activities.

How to sort out the process of a "simple single-threaded activity"

First of all, regarding a simple single-threaded activity, how should its process be organized? In fact, the core is two key points:

1. Experience the activity yourself and draw out the entire main experience process of users participating in the activity step by step;

2. Further clarify which operations/choices/judgments may lead to branching processes in the entire activity.

Take "Job Opportunity in One Second" as an example to sort out the simple activity process

Its starting point is definitely to visit the H5 generated page;

On this page, you can generate a personal business card by entering your name, and then save the generated image and share it on your Moments or with other friends;

If other people see this picture, they can long-press and scan the QR code on the business card;

Then after scanning the QR code, a check will appear to determine whether you are a fan of the official account;

If yes, the next page will automatically jump to the conversation page of the official account, and a link will be automatically pushed in the official account page. After clicking the link, you can continue to access the generated page of H5;

If not, you can choose whether to follow the official account. If not, the whole process ends;

If you follow it, the official account will automatically reply with guidance and you can enter the generation page.

So after sorting it out, you will find that the whole process is relatively simple and clear. Similarly, suppose that after we have sorted out the content, we also want to generate XXX in one second, or quickly give you XXX feedback so that you can show off to your friends. If you want to make such a small H5, this basic process can be used as a reference, but the copywriting and theme of the process must be adjusted.

How to sort out the process of a "complex multi-threaded activity"

This requires a hierarchical approach, so let’s look at it in two parts:

1. First sort out the overall thread of the entire activity

2. Reorganize the specific participation process of a single activity

For example, to sort out the overall thread of a single activity, we can basically pull out a table centered on time and its gameplay or activity module, with one as the horizontal axis and the other as the vertical axis.

The horizontal part of this table is its time stage, and the vertical part is the difference between the focuses of individual activities. For example, for a promotional activity, it may be divided into several different time stages. In each time stage, there may be a main activity module, and each module may have a different orientation.

For example, there are some that are aimed at all users, all products and business lines, and there are also some that sell specific users and specific products. In each module, the gameplay is definitely different.

We basically sort out this table, and if we fill in the time stages, activity modules, and the specific gameplay under the modules separately, we can basically sort out the basic threads of a single activity. Let's take a look at an example below.

Case Study: The Magic Turning Point Competition

Around 2016, Jianshu and Meizu jointly held an essay contest, which was called the Divine Turning Point Contest. What I mean is to give everyone a basic theme and ask them to write a novel with some unexpected twists and turns, and hold this competition on Jianshu.

Let's do a simple review of this competition. After the review, we will follow the basic method mentioned above and get a table like this:

It is roughly divided into four time stages, and the main module of the entire activity is also divided into four parts. What to do in each module and each time period can basically be filled in clearly in the table.

After this table is sorted out, if we write a special topic on the site for some of the two modules, for example, during time stage 2, and expose it to the users of Jianshu as a whole, what form of promotion it will take to users, what kind of page the user will enter after clicking on the special topic, what kind of interaction and operation the user can complete on this page, how the user will select in the end, and what are the rules, all these can be further sorted out in the process.

In this way, the overall thread has been sorted out, and the specific gameplay and rules in some specific key links have also been sorted out. After both are sorted out, we will basically have a very good foundation for how to refer to it for a complex activity later.

Author: Xu Xiongxiong

Source: Xiongxiong Operation Notes (ID: TRIPLEX_XYY )