Definition of the Dark Side: MySpace
Jens O. Meiert, March 18, 2007 / February 16, 2009.
This entry is filed under Web Development, Usability, Marketing, Design.
We once talked about the “Dark Side” but didn’t define it yet. It’s MySpace. Why? Because multiplying unprofessionalism with popularity lets MySpace score the most points.
MySpace is so unprofessional, you even need to guess if it’s “MySpace” or “myspace” (they use both terms). Probably there isn’t even a canonical brand name. Likewise, the interface just doesn’t work (meaning it’s unusable), not only because it’s inconsistent (and, well, ugly). The technical foundation can be ignored since there’s none, and along with user-added code MySpace will find itself in a maintainability trap. You would probably fire the responsibles in any decent web development company.
MySpace’s fascinating nonetheless. It’s a phenomenon. How can such an inferior product of such inferior quality result in so much popularity? That almost needs some research.
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Comments
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On March 19, 2007, 8:25 CET, Sebastian Kippe said:
MySpace is just the very best example for the massive importance of reaching the critical number of (quality) members for this type of community. The one big motor of it all is undeniably MySpace Music, respectively the band profiles and the possibility of being “friend” (whatever this means) of whoever you like.
While I agree that the frontend code is just the worst I’ve ever seen (no, really), I must admit that the success of the platform also tells us once more that content is king - no matter how unusable or ugly it is presented.
Now hand over this barf bag, I just visited the site again!
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On March 23, 2007, 17:07 CET, Eric Shaw said:
Professionalism is not always necessary. Branding is not always important. Consistency doesn not always make the experience better. Ugly is an opinion, not fact. Just because you have thoughts doesn’t mean you have to share them.
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On March 24, 2007, 13:20 CET, Jens Meiert said:
Eric, please explain what you mean with “professionalism is not always necessary.”
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On March 26, 2007, 9:29 CEST, Codrin Sava said:
“Ugly” is as much in the eye of the beholder as everything. That doesn’t mean you can’t point your finger to what you think is not right/beautiful/good. On the other hand good or even amazing design and coding don’t make a site successfull. MySpace is a pretty good example of that.
One of the reasons that ugly is such a best-seller is that no alternative is present. -
On October 22, 2007, 21:36 CEST, Jens Meiert said:
A former article concerning obsolete pageviews stated that “[…] part of the reason MySpace drives such an amazing number of pageviews is because their site design is so terrible” while personally, I recently came to the conclusion that “the only thing that explains the success of MySpace is group pressure”. To add two cents.
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On November 13, 2007, 17:27 CET, leave it alone said:
MYSPACE ISNT AS BAD AS YOU GUYS MAKE IT SEEM SO STOP DISSING IT
