I've been trying out
MySpace since last month. And yes, I know I'm late to the party, but what's all the fuss about? Granted, I've reconnected with some old friends and whatnot, but what is up with their system? A quick straw poll of everyone I know on MySpace indicates the interface is total garbage, never mind all the server issues they've been having. You'd think that
buyout from News Corp. would have gained something for their troubles. And since "
Tom" (if that is his real name) won't respond to my queries (probably out spending that $500+ million from Murdoch), I thought I'd share what I would change about MySpace. Please leave your own suggestions in the comments, and I'll forward them to the mysterious keeper of MySpace...
- Start using Ajax. Seriously, what's with all the clicking and half-empty pages? Something tells me you'd be a lot nicer to your servers if you reduced the overhead by not having to load 3 distinct pages just to leave comments.
- How about a control panel for customizing alerts and subscriptions? Each friend of yours could have a simple checkbox UI for issuing message alerts (which I don't need usually, and they often lag), or reading blog posts, etc. Again, this would help those server issues.
- Speaking of server-side, is it wise to keep using ColdFusion? Not trying to start a flame war about backend tech, but I hear php can really keep up with the obvious scaling issues you're having.
- Let's try some more consolidation of the interface. Do I want to view my comments or view my profile as others see it? Do I want to post a blog or a bulletin? Make these things clear please... And add some RSS feeds for Pete's sake.
- Snippets of blog entries would be cool, as would scaling of images on comments. Nothing like scrolling, is there?
- Maybe it's my browser, but cookies would help so I don't have to log in all the time. Gmail does a great job of this.
What exactly is so clunky about the interface? And where's
Jakob Nielsen when you need him?
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Comments
26
Subscribe to commentsXaosDec 6th 2005 9:58PM
Yeah that calendar is crap. If you want to add an event like a bands concert or something, first you must go to the bands page and add it, then go into your home page and THEN mark it so everyone can see it since its default setting is to make it private first, which I think is very backwards, gah. Someone should message bomb "Tom" with this article, probably me...or probably not since deleting him was the first thing I ever did on MySpace, heh..
drewjamesDec 7th 2005 12:38AM
myspace is a place for dolts, any advanced upgrades would either confuse everyone or go unnoticed
Philip DhingraDec 8th 2005 7:32PM
These comments against the music videos are naive. It's not just noobie internet users enamored by flashing lights. Myspace is a pyramid SNS, with the muscians and glamorous at the top, and everybody else below supporting them. You don't have to be a music lover to be part of myspace, but it de facto functions as a new MTV. So music videos are the service. And if you talk to kids who love myspace, they love the music.
Jeremy LDec 9th 2005 11:47AM
Well, if it's any help to anyone, I'm actually currently coding up a site that is very similar to Myspace. All in PHP, using templating classes, and ajax/javascript/etc wherever possible to speed it up. Also, fixed up the navigation so it doesn't suck and isn't confusing. I've been working on the project for about 4-5 months now. The reason for it taking forever is the fact that A) I do have college (finals next week), B) The site is huge. Right now the gui is better then Myspaces, it has better user interaction, navigation, etc. I intend on redoing the interface to be css/xhtml standard, and all user input goes through an xhtml filter as well as a malicious code filter.
Anyway, I'm looking for some people who are willing to offer design suggestions. The project does have a name which I'll make known to those who are interested. I hope to make a lot of progress over this winter break and release it to the public as a beta before next semester. Oh, and this site is far more secure then any of the other social networking sites. No cheap tricks.
Keep this thread going, I'm taking in information.
My email for those interested: webmaster [at] p2pforums.com
ChrisDec 10th 2005 1:33PM
I believe this calls for a hardcore greasemonkey user.js!
Joe HixDec 13th 2005 11:44AM
Taken off of an article I wrote for my site (http://wearethemainstream.net)
1. Make a search page that wasn't fucking stupid.
2. Make it so when you register, you log in with a fucking screen name rather than an e-mail address. (Also makes it so your directory on the site would be www.url.com/yourpage rather than www.url.com/98370927340927 I mean, talk about being just a number literally. I am aware that you can make your own directory name, but most members are too stupid to figure it out and you'll never be able to fine a specific person when you want to in a million fucking years.
3. Delete anyone with over 500 friends, because that's fucking stupid.
4. Allow doing every feature except personal messages, profile (no shit) without having to fucking register.
5. The administrators actually told the members of the site what the letter X really was for.
6. The administrators hypnotize all the members with far too many Myscace friends to eat a bullet.