[Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace

[Stewart Dean]

>From: "Dmitry Nekrasovski" <mail.dmitry at gmail.com>
>To: Listera <listera at rcn.com>
>CC: SIGIA-L <sigia-l at asis.org>
>Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace
>Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:55:06 -0800
>
>A definite no as far as UX competitive advantages. It took me 6 or 7
>tries just to get the signup form and captchas to cooperate...
>
>I believe their real competitive advantage _is_ that no one over 23
>gets it. For teenagers, that might be the most important feature. :)
>
>Dmitry


Never underestimate the power of culture I guess.  Look at text messaging as 
a user experience - the interface is awful yet I have witnessed those under 
25 able to text in near real time.

So I hate to say it but it does mean fashion IS part of interface design. It 
also means that it is an art and a science and ethnographic research will 
tell you much more about your interface than eye tracking could. it's not so 
much thinking outside of the box, more 'what box?'.

It also means that usability is jsut a part of user experience (and as you 
get more experiential a small part).

Incidently I play in a band and am getting into My Space as it's the place 
for new music, first in the US and now in the UK. Sure it looks awful, has a 
clunky inteface, breaks on a constant basis and feels like it's held 
together using gaffer tape - but then so does an indie guitarists beloved 
squire strat....

Stew Dean