[Sigia-l] is bad design a choice?

[Jared M. Spool]

By what metric are you judging MySpace (and eBay, for that matter,) to be 
*bad design*? Because it is ugly? Because *you* have trouble finding your 
way around it?

It always intrigues me that people in the design community are ready to 
praise a design where the aesthetics and "navigation" are well thought out, 
but no effort has be put into the content. Yet, when a site comes along 
with excellent content (for its user community) and poor aesthetics and 
"navigation", the condemnations rise quickly.

Here's a thought: maybe MySpace sold for so much money purely because of 
its content (and the access to 17 million content providers)? Maybe that's 
also why eBay and CraigsList (another "bad design" site) are so valuable 
today? Maybe the users of such designs are happy with poor aesthetics and 
"navigation" when the content exceeds their expectations?

Maybe, just maybe, content trumps "design"?

Just sayin'

:)

Jared



Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d, Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks