thinkvitamin.com— Why do successful websites often look like they were designed by someone who wouldn't be able to design their way out of a pencil case?
Jun 26, 2006View in Crawl 4
"made the content so narrow (with ads either side) that the user had to wear sunglasses to avoid the dazzle from all the whitespace in the left/right margins." I was wondering what all that whitespace was for.
"[sites such as MySpace] look as if they were created by an engineer".? But it doesn't work properly OR look good! And no amount of page hacking will fix the site's IA.For example: I receive a MySpace mail from my brother. I click the link. I'm told I have to log in to see that page (fair enough). I log in. It doesn't take me where I originally clicked. So I have to go back to the email and click again! Just the tip of the iceberg...It's beyond me why they don't get some proper web developers and designers to fix it. They could save a fortune in page-weight bandwidth to start with!
Myspace wasn't exactly the first to execute - friendster and several other web communities were around before myspace. I've been on myspace since the early days when they had just a few features and I still cannot explain the rise in popularity that came out of nowhere.Although limited in working and truly useful features, myspace let everyone customize their page to an almost infinite extent. This resulted in thousands of browser-crashing pages that would play like 10 video's at once, but people loved it because they had the power to customize and do what they wanted. It was more than just a blog with a pre-picked look.What bothers me bout the whole myspace enterprise is that they never seem to bother with fixing bad code or making the useful features work. Say you wanted to find people in your city with some of the same general interests as you - a search will return you people from all over the place and there is no way to focus your search. You can browse, if you have 10 hours of free time, to weed through all the spam profiles and ones that are irrelevant to your isue.It's sad because that company must generate tons and tons of money off their ads, but they don't seen to spend any of it on improving the sites. Instead they just keep rolling out new features that never fully work.
I have read through every last comment on this page, and being a web designer myself, I happen to have an opinion on the matter. No matter what the "My Space" design is, each user is entitled to their own layout, graphics, web toys and pictures correct? The whole point of my space is for users to be able to have a personal "website" and interact with their friends. It's not about what you as a web designer think looks pretty, or you as a my space member thinks is annoying. It's about what YOU as a My Space member thinks about YOUR, PERSONAL PROFILE. No body should have a say in what your page looks like but you. And in case you didn't know, HTML coding from absolute scratch is difficult and takes hours. And that's IF you know what your doing. Amateurs normally snag their layout off of some website like whateverlife.com. Most of them don't know whats "in" or "trashy", and some of them will probably never figure out HOW to change their layout, and I bet most of them will never know how to even view their profile. Just leave em alone. Yes, it may be annoying, but after all, what is annoying but a matter of opinion?
I just read through very comment on this page too and wow. i can't believe some people have so many generalizations about websites. lets take, Craigslist, for example, it may not be the best designed, but it WORKS. my mother lost her wedding ring when she went out one time, and you know where it popped up on? CRAIGSLIST.she just looked in the lost and found. Craigslist is one of the biggest websites out there and you know what? it only has 23 (yes, TWENTY-THREE) employees!! so who says they have the TIME to make it look pretty? k so moving on from that, there's myspace, i use it, i like it, there are exactly 153248235 members in it, not including "tom" who proabably doesn't exist, and if he does, why would he create a website with 100 million users and still make it free?? because he Believes that people should have something that THEY WANT so they can express themselves however they want with no exceptions,(except porn). p.s. therissonator is one of the only people who make sense on this whole page, and if you dont like how i feel about that, too bad.
Being a web designer I have noticed that some clients like ugly design. I mean there is a huge number of people who have absolutely no taste at all... I guess MySpace found all those people and got them to sign up. That's why it's so popular.
trogdoorJun 26, 2006
"made the content so narrow (with ads either side) that the user had to wear sunglasses to avoid the dazzle from all the whitespace in the left/right margins." I was wondering what all that whitespace was for.
Closed AccountJun 27, 2006
I disagree. Sites like myspace are easy to look at, navigate and can appeal to the masses. It's not flashy, but it works well.
gridrunnerJun 28, 2006
"[sites such as MySpace] look as if they were created by an engineer".? But it doesn't work properly OR look good! And no amount of page hacking will fix the site's IA.For example: I receive a MySpace mail from my brother. I click the link. I'm told I have to log in to see that page (fair enough). I log in. It doesn't take me where I originally clicked. So I have to go back to the email and click again! Just the tip of the iceberg...It's beyond me why they don't get some proper web developers and designers to fix it. They could save a fortune in page-weight bandwidth to start with!
zclipJul 19, 2006
Myspace wasn't exactly the first to execute - friendster and several other web communities were around before myspace. I've been on myspace since the early days when they had just a few features and I still cannot explain the rise in popularity that came out of nowhere.Although limited in working and truly useful features, myspace let everyone customize their page to an almost infinite extent. This resulted in thousands of browser-crashing pages that would play like 10 video's at once, but people loved it because they had the power to customize and do what they wanted. It was more than just a blog with a pre-picked look.What bothers me bout the whole myspace enterprise is that they never seem to bother with fixing bad code or making the useful features work. Say you wanted to find people in your city with some of the same general interests as you - a search will return you people from all over the place and there is no way to focus your search. You can browse, if you have 10 hours of free time, to weed through all the spam profiles and ones that are irrelevant to your isue.It's sad because that company must generate tons and tons of money off their ads, but they don't seen to spend any of it on improving the sites. Instead they just keep rolling out new features that never fully work.
therissonatorNov 5, 2006
I have read through every last comment on this page, and being a web designer myself, I happen to have an opinion on the matter. No matter what the "My Space" design is, each user is entitled to their own layout, graphics, web toys and pictures correct? The whole point of my space is for users to be able to have a personal "website" and interact with their friends. It's not about what you as a web designer think looks pretty, or you as a my space member thinks is annoying. It's about what YOU as a My Space member thinks about YOUR, PERSONAL PROFILE. No body should have a say in what your page looks like but you. And in case you didn't know, HTML coding from absolute scratch is difficult and takes hours. And that's IF you know what your doing. Amateurs normally snag their layout off of some website like whateverlife.com. Most of them don't know whats "in" or "trashy", and some of them will probably never figure out HOW to change their layout, and I bet most of them will never know how to even view their profile. Just leave em alone. Yes, it may be annoying, but after all, what is annoying but a matter of opinion?
crutchyFeb 4, 2007
I just read through very comment on this page too and wow. i can't believe some people have so many generalizations about websites. lets take, Craigslist, for example, it may not be the best designed, but it WORKS. my mother lost her wedding ring when she went out one time, and you know where it popped up on? CRAIGSLIST.she just looked in the lost and found. Craigslist is one of the biggest websites out there and you know what? it only has 23 (yes, TWENTY-THREE) employees!! so who says they have the TIME to make it look pretty? k so moving on from that, there's myspace, i use it, i like it, there are exactly 153248235 members in it, not including "tom" who proabably doesn't exist, and if he does, why would he create a website with 100 million users and still make it free?? because he Believes that people should have something that THEY WANT so they can express themselves however they want with no exceptions,(except porn). p.s. therissonator is one of the only people who make sense on this whole page, and if you dont like how i feel about that, too bad.
jakespillsMay 21, 2008
MySpace isn't a problem. People with bad taste are the problem. This custom myspace design company creates awesome myspace flash layouts. If you want your myspace layouts to look like professional websites you need to hire a professional myspace design company. <a class="user" href="http://www.myspace.com/designformyspace">http://www.myspace.com/designformyspace</a><a class="user" href="http://www.pearsestreet.com/myspace-flash-layouts.html">http://www.pearsestreet.com/myspace-flash-layouts. ...</a>
theadvinciJul 18, 2008
Being a web designer I have noticed that some clients like ugly design. I mean there is a huge number of people who have absolutely no taste at all... I guess MySpace found all those people and got them to sign up. That's why it's so popular.
domniDec 11, 2008
Continuum, you took the words right out of my mouth - design and usability do not need to be mutually exclusive. However, it is true that a lot of users just don't care and those who do redesign their page. There are a lot of companies out there who do this. Take a look at Out(Loud).<a class="user" href="http://www.myspace.com/outloudmarketing">http://www.myspace.com/outloudmarketing</a><a class="user" href="http://www.myspace.com/outloudmyspacedesign">http://www.myspace.com/outloudmyspacedesign</a><a class="user" href="http://www.outloudmarketing.com">http://www.outloudmarketing.com</a>