The project I conducted this project for my graduation at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology. In 6 months I investigated the possibilities for Hyves users to have a stronger bond with the brand. Hyves is the biggest website in the Netherlands and is a Social Network Site (SNS). Social Network Sites are online communities on which users can create a profile and connect with other users. Furthermore there are possibilities to share photos and videos, post blogs, add different gadgets, and so on. It can be said that Hyves is the only significant Dutch SNS, but international competitors are coming up within the Netherlands. In order to make sure Hyves’ users stay loyal to them, they need to ensure they have a strong bond with them. As Hyves has grown exponentially since its foundation in 2004, the company has not had the time to focus on their users yet. This project is a start into this direction and investigates users’ opinions regarding the site, as well as to estimate their bond. User research results in 2 ideas for Hyves to create a stronger bond with their users. The process In order to investigate users’ opinions, different research techniques are used. The project starts with a segmentation of the users. Hyves as over 9 million users most of which are Dutch. This means they reach over 50% of the Dutch population above 13 years old. To get a grip on this big amount of users, different segments were made, accompanied with a persona for each of these segments. As each of these segments would need a different approach to be bonded with, 2 segments were chosen to further focus on. These were the Ignorant and Curious segments: both are not very frequent users (weekly - monthly) and are not strongly bonded with Hyves. The Ignorant user just randomly browses around on the site, sometimes just looking around at others’ profiles, sometimes posting content (e.g. uploading photos, sending messages). The Curious segment is more of a passive type of user, who just looks around and never really post anything themselves. Both segments use the site more to keep up to date of old acquaintances, and not to be in contact with their close friends. A focus group with participants from these 2 segments gave more and deeper information about these types of users. 7 users participated in the session, which gave rich information about these segments. With the results of the focus group I set up a questionnaire. This survey was put on Hyves, and 1810 users filled it out. Finally, with the results of the survey 2 ideas were further developed and accompanied with an implementation plan The results In general this project has shown that user research can lead to new, important insights for Hyves. Focus groups for example are a good way for Hyves to get an indication of their users’ wishes. Online surveys also are an appropriate technique for Hyves to use. To website is a perfect host to collect data, with the amount of users which visit Hyves everyday, data collection happens quickly. Hyves does already conduct surveys, but this could be done more often, and be more focussed on users. For this project it was found that the more often someone uses Hyves, the more bonded they are. Furthermore 2 of the main reasons for users to keep their Hyves profile is because it is an easy way to keep in contact with their friends, and because it is a good way to find back old acquaintances. Also there were little reasons for users to delete their profile. A too public profile and or if they use Hyves too little were the top 2 reasons. Also it was found that privacy is important to the users, which is a recent change for SNS, were users are becoming aware of the dangers of personal information online: 60% of the users has made their profile more private in the past year. At the same time Hyves users have difficulties setting their privacy: Half of the users thinks their profile is more private than it actually is. With these findings, 2 ideas were further developed: Visual feedback of privacy settings - Give users examples of what their profile looks like for their friends, friends of friends, hyvers and everyone. This enables them to check their settings and set them to their preference. Being sure of your privacy settings creates a safer feeling on Hyves and might lead to more participation. Division of friends into groups - Explore the possibilities of division of friends into groups. Users often reflect their offline life on Hyves, which sometimes creates difficulties. On Hyves there is no degree in friendships, while this could help users to feel more free online. The division of friends will give users the possibility to give more nuance to their online network. It enables them to fence off certain aspects of their profile for particular groups. Also it could be possible to easily stay up to date of all of your groups of friends. For these ideas an implementation plan was made, as well as a project proposal for Hyves.