Posterous: great example of capitalizing on existing user behaviors
I don’t know how my TV works and I don’t care.
(Seventy years ago, I’m sure there were television enthusiasts who cared how they worked. Indeed, they would have to, because I’m pretty sure television sets in the early 1940s behaved an awful lot like computers in the late 1980s/early 1990s - unpredictable and prone to odd behaviors that corrected themselves when you gave them a solid whack on the side.)
Posterous knows that for most people, they don’t know how file uploading works and they don’t care. They just want their stuff to be in a place where other people can access their stuff, preferably without having to learn about something they don’t care about.
What’s brilliant about this service is that it capitalizes on the way users were already behaving.
Non-techie: “I need to put these images up where other people can easily see them.”
Techie: “OK - you need to use this secure FTP app and then upload them to our web directory. It’s slash user slash web slash home slash–”
Non-techie: …Non-techie: “Why don’t I just email you the files and you tell me where I can see them on the web?”
Posterous works exactly like this (except automating the role of the human techie intermediary). You send an email to them with files, they magically email you back with a URL where you can see them.
Great example #1: It’s hard to change user behavior. Look for ways that you can support people’s natural, pre-existing behaviors. (I read in ZDNet recently email described as a “comfort app” - one that doesn’t impose a lot of rules, it just works)
You don’t even have to register first. When you send an email, you’re automatically providing the minimum information the service needs to know from you: where they can contact you.
Great example #2: The higher the perceived friction, the fewer people will try it. In general, trying new things is hard. People don’t like feeling like novices and risking making mistakes. Making that “novice” stage seem as fast - or non-existent - as possible relieves that stress.
To take it one step further, making things seem ridiculously easy is such a novelty that you can attract people who weren’t even interested in your site in the first place!
Great example #3: Start now, customize later. The simple as possible setup options often aren’t enough 
to get users to stick around forever. They’ll want more control. The time to offer it is after they’ve decided to try you out, and engaged.
Posterous upsells extra configuration options - but only after they’ve shown you what they can do.
As always, I am not associated with Posterous - I just like what they’ve done!
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