[Sigia-l] is bad design a choice?

[Trenouth, John]

Jared said:
> 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.

That's probably because so many designers have been "ghettoized" into
aesthetics and navigation, so this what they are professionally most
conditioned to.

Jared said:
> Here's a thought: maybe MySpace sold for so much money purely because 
> of its content

Yikes!  I've spent a bit too much time on MySpace, and haven't come
across much actual content yet.  "Jenn you're my bestfriend, huggs!",
"Did you see Dave last week?  What a mess" and "Yeah, that's sooo
tight".  I guess technically that's content.

Actually I suspect that it's the form's appropriateness to the content,
its users and  their use of it that is so appealing; and how together
the form and content reveal so much about the person behind each space
through a chaotic, messy collaginess that would not be possible in a
more intentioned, more designedly form.  I suppose Don Norman would say
that the MySpace form affords its content.  A more "designerly"
aesthetic and a more "usable" navigation would likely change the nature
of the content and ruin the whole thing for everyone.  

I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the Space Cadets seem to
be around high school age, and the MySpace design aesthetic is like
something you'd find on an average high school student's locker and
notebooks--a jumble of scattered personal, pop-cultural, notes,
scribbles, doodles, and clippings, where the individual elements are
mostly meaningless while the collage they present and persona that
emerges are what really matter (and remember how important it was to
project the right persona in highschool?).  Again, changing the form
would likely ruin this dynamic.  

Of course, there's the fact that it doesn't take much skill or effort to
maintain a highly individual MySpace site.  MySpace is a kind of a
design equalizer, and everyone's MySpace is on about the same aesthetic
and usability level regardless of skill or effort.  So all the busy LA
scenesters and Orange County high-schoolers can spend less time online,
and more time partying.  Bless their little hearts.

Of course MySpace's demographic is rather fickle and the web so fluid,
so they'll be on to something else by Easter.  

-- john