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?
