[Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace

[Alexander Rudloff]

The irony is that the last word on earth that should be used to
describe MySpace is "simple." Ghetto, perhaps, "ghetto simple", not so
much.

Things that should be simple tasks on MySpace demonstrate learning
curves -- a small example;

In order to send a message to someone, I have to first go to their
profile. That is, unless I add them to my address book and use my
address book to send. The section labeled "My Mail", however, has
absolutely no way to send someone a message. Should there be a
"compose" feature that at the least lists all my contacts so I can
quickly fire something off? Especially considering 1 out of 5 times,
you can't get to the users profile because something critical on the
site is broken.

>> Just how did it get that critical mass of 50MM users?

Business execution. Purely. The decision to market towards musicians
and their fans was/is  absolutely brilliant. They were able to tap
into a demographic that would typically not be found using one of the
many already available social networks. That demographic also happens
to be quite influential.

We tolerate the quirks, poor design, and hodge podge of seemingly
unrelated features because its just so damned cool to be able to
reconnect with lost friends and have the ability to better know
acquaintances. It's the promise of social networking realized.

>> If it's a design/IA failure and yet has garnered Napster-like scale, what
>> does it say about our profession?

Design != Popularity. Instead, if you want to justify the profession,
imagine if IA professionals were given the chance to improve MySpace.

I think I'm up to four cents,

Alex


On 2/22/06, Maynard, Robert <robert.maynard at citigroup.com> wrote:
> Funny thing--MySpace users don't complain about the site's wonky IA or primitive interface. They just adapt to it. And they love it. MySpace is primarily a multimedia playground for novice bitheads.
>
> >From what I can tell, the MySpace appeal is that it's an all-in-one lifestyle hub. Aside from personal profiles, MySpace offers email, chat, e-invites, bulletin boards, blogs, shout-out style testimonials, and proprietary audio/video players compatible with every platform. No need to jump from site to site (or app to app for that matter), checking Hotmail here, reading a blog there, cueing a track in iTunes way over there, etc. One sign-in gets you access to all of the above. Free of charge.
>
> Perhaps MySpace is a pure form of this season's buzz-concept,  *simplicity.*
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
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