Pitfalls of Web Design: Customization, Usability and MySpace-ification

I was talking to someone earlier today about... well, let's put it this way: they were grumbling about being unhappy that they couldn't customize their Farcebook page "like you could on MySpace."

I remember MySpace.

I also remember MySpace being close to completely UN-usable due to the very thing this person was missing: Customization.

You just don't get that on Facebook. It's all the same layout, the same blue header bar, the same feed and so on.

Yellow Rhododendron

Web Usability and the "MySpace Problem"

Whereas I can certainly appreciate that it can be "fun" to create various effects, blinking lights, animated text and various other things, it's usually pretty bad usability.

In a web context, when you give people "too MUCH freedom," you tend to end up with chaos, as people descend into an ongoing "who's more customized" contest... and eventually the actual content becomes unusable or inaccessible because it's covered with so many layers of "decoration" that you can't actually find anything.

Creative freedom might look great on paper, but a lot of people overdo it, so it's not necessarily a positive feature.

It's one of the reasons I actually don't have very fond memories of MySpace: I couldn't get half the pages to load because of the sheer volume of crap people would put on their pages! In a sense, the simple one-size-fits-all format of Facebook was a relief.

Interestingly enough, our posts here in Steemlandia are mostly pretty standardized, in spite of the fact many think of this as one of the "bastions of freedom!"

Leaf in the sun

Photo Processing, and Such...

Part of my little "rant" here is inspired by personal — and recent — experiences.

There are a couple of photo-editing apps I use, and I've noticed that every time they update, there are more and more "blinkies" and decoration added with each update... while actual photo editing tools like brightness, hues, formatting and resizing are harder and harder to find.

Seems like the "MySpace-fication" of the world is still alive and well... sadly.

Then again, this all may simply hark back to post from a few days ago, about feeling more and more like an ancient relic in the digital age. I'm certainly open to that possibility!

But there is something slightly disturbing, as a sort of subtext: Content getting pushed into the background, in favor of appearance and decoration. Actual meaning is being drowned in an ocean of "fluffery."

And I don't really like it!

Which also makes me feel a bit like one of those grumpy old men, sitting on the back patio, yelling at kids to "get off my lawn" every few minutes!

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190623 00:36 PST
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