It’s 1999.
MySpace and Facebook are years away. Entrepreneur Jeffrey Gilbert runs The Dilly, a forum for high school and college students. He asks me to help with an ambitious redesign of the site’s interface. However, one member profile page feature would go on to define the brand.
BADGES WERE HOT
Verified members already had badges on their profile page, much like a modern authentication check. What if there were other kinds of achievements to unlock?
EMOJI WERE NOT
Early emoji were pretty basic, but I envisioned big, expressive characters that would reflect the community’s young and rebellious counter-culture.
MYSTERY MATTERS
The idea was to release these characters in secret, with no instructions. When one appeared on someone’s profile, others rushed to figure out how to unlock it.
I would create dozens of character "ranks"
each locked behind an achievement that matched their design. Proud of your friend count?
Show off your superstar rank. Post frequently in the sports boards?
Flex your sportsfan rank. Admins, moderators, board leaders
all got access to their own unique rank icons.
Word spread.
This viral marketing gamification system was relatively new, incentivizing site activity by rewarding participation milestones.
At its height,
The Dilly would become the underground clubhouse for nearly a million of the Internet’s coolest kids— a quaint number today, but a proud feat for three misfits who didn’t realize they were building one of the first modern social networks.
The Dilly “Rank Icons”
