Gratuitously heinous webdesign
This post can be subtitled: Myspace vs Facebook. I know I’ve probably complained about it before, but it begs repeating over and over and over and over. Myspace is an incredibly clever social networking tool, and the most heinous excuse for bad, bad, bad, unforgivably bad webdesign. EVERY principle of usability can and/or is VIOLATED within the myspace realm!
We have:
- cluttered layout
- distracting background images and unreadable color combinations
- loud music starting up upon page opening
- layout that encourages people to post results of personality quizzes
- unreadable blog format
Actually any of that list could pretty much apply to any of the spaces on myspace, not just the ones I have linked. I really wasn’t trying to pick on any one “space” and in fact there are some clean templates out there, and some cool friends to be had. It’s not really user’s faults though. The point is that Myspace as a phenomena is a slap in the face to effective message design and graphic design principles, and it has been purposefully created in this manner.
I never thought I’d even go here, but Facebook, as a comparable social networking site has a much better design model and interface. Admittedly, I don’t think you can customize your profile graphically beyond photos AND THAT’S A GOOD THING! It allows a far greater level of privacy, customizable by the user. Also, the ways in which you can begin to link to others via groups is much more dynamic than Myspace allows because as soon as you start listing schools and graduation years, you can click on those links to find others in your network with the same affiliations.
