Web Roast: MySpace.com Redesign

Nice roast again CF, well done! I was never really a myspace person. When I had first visited a couple profiles, they all had massive bling, glitter and other funky stuff on them which made them unique I guess, but also downright confusing :) Here are my comments:

• It feels very safe for a music-oriented site. I personally would have stepped out the box a little more, and taken something on that was more funky like MTV. Even Twitter has a more unique design.
• The entire design has a lot of FB gadgets/elements, but in the process manages to lose the MySpace style. Big avatars, music players, etc. where did that all go? I don't think such a drastic site redesign was needed, but rather continuous improvement and polishing of the existing one.
• If the goal is getting registrations, I don't think this site will do anything massive towards it, or for that matter get activity going again. Safe is the word that keeps coming back to mind...

All in all, this feels like a step backwards. Maybe you needed to involve the community more with a points/reputation system or otherwise. FB doesn't have that and those reward schemes do work (just look at all the VB communities).

Either way, good luck with the site!

Cheers

Noel

Gawd...

I have always loathed this site, so it will be fun to roast it. Being one of the first social media platforms it was in it's own league but now it's just so dated.

I'll use notes as it's easier to point out quickly what I would change.

Ok so there's a lot I would change, I just think that the youth of today is way more advanced than I was at the same age...

I think that the Team at MySpace are a bit of a joke when their site is aimed at the youth of today yet their usability and user experience is a joke.

Hope my review makes sense...

I am user of “n” number of social and professional networks and I just want to share that very few of them I use regularly. I do have account with MySpace buy I barely use it…I think following few things which always terrify me and became the reason of look forward for something other:

• Colors – I never saw MySpace making the proper us of colors… overuse of colors, use of colors that’s not seems appreciating at this point. Please check notes on the home page that’s related to the focal point diversion because of the color.

• Typography – after spending few minutes and analyzing the typography… I got the sense that for MS typography is just a term that is quite similar to the idiotology.

• Usability/Personalization point – I think this is most critical thing which is messing up.

Please check my notes for some of general thoughts on design screens that are basically in regards to improving the user experience and design aesthetics.

Hope this helps!!

PS: I am sorry being so harsh about revising the MS but I really had a great pain reviewing it. Also I saw a complete different design at myspace.com which have covered few of issues?

Haider

When I think of Myspace, I think of a few things.

1. Teenagers, Teenagers, Teenagers
2. The year 2000
3. Bombardment of Ad's

I think I'm off topic, but I think that Myspace.com should focus more on developing new designs for peoples profile than spending time working on the main page. I know there are some good looking myspace pages, but where are the web 2.0 designs or templates that are visually appealing to current generation web users??? (wordpress) Sometimes when I'm trying to find a band or a person and myspace pops up I'm instantly turned off because of the design of the page. Most of the time the colors clash, background images are thrown in a page with no feel for color contrast, etc...I guess I just feel like most of the people who use myspace don't have an eye for design, so wouldn't it make sense to make visually appealing templates for their users? I guess what I'm trying to say is instead of overhauling the main page, work on the users pages.

As far as the main page goes, it looks ok, but isn't something to write home about. Visually I see a few problems.

• theres about a 10px indent underneath the main banner. Not sure why thats there...
• also I like that the main content has a right border, but what happened to the left one? It looks like it started up at the top of the page, but ends where the header image starts.
• I do like that "login" is the default choice and not "sign up." I feel like websites that have that as the default choice are more worried about getting new people, than keeping the old ones.

Idk, I guess to me, the homepage is a front for the site and looks ok, but the real problem lies in the pages of the users.

The home page is much too complicated. Users do not need any of those options until they have logged in.

> The purpose of the homepage of a social networking site should be to attract new users.

Compare this page to www.facebook.com.

When you visit facebook, there is a simple login form and a large attention grabbing sign up form. It is very clear that to use any of the features of facebook you need to be a member. This provides users with motivation to signup and get involved.

After visiting myspace, the Welcome information seen in this screenshot is no longer displayed. As a result, the only mention of signing up is the "Sign Up!" tag above the login form. This may make the user feel that signing up doesn't have much of a benefit. That is, if they even notice the sign up link.

My views will be on Marketing side more than the design side.

Point 1: Too much focus on music. Focusing too much of music has its pros and cons. Pros: You get teens to signup fast. Cons: Most of us would agree that the kind of craze we have for music when we are teens, is not there when we are 25 years and above. So the same teens who signed up years ago will start loosing interest when they are adults because the site does not cater to their changing needs.

To be successful, you need to keep in mind the interest of all the audiences and ensure that their needs are cateried throughout their lifespan. Facebook have successfully been able to cater to individual of all ages, corporates and non-corporates as well.

Generalization gathers crowd, specialization gathers individuals.

Point 2: The secret is to keep the main thing the main thing

There are tons of things to do on myspace. Music, vidoes, Games, Events...but hey, these things should be in addition to the main purpose of the site which is socializing. If you see the home page, it gives feeling more of musical site then a socializing site. That's where the whole purpose of the site is lost.

Point 3. "I live in Paris, but I don't know french"

I am only able to comment on this from point of view of where I live - India. Myspace has site for India at http://in.myspace.com. But if you visit that page, you will see details about some foreign bands which we never heard of. For India, they need to promote Indian music so that we can connect to it. How do you suppose we will know this site is for us if we can't connect with what they represent?

They need to learn how Yahoo localizes the content that it is liked by one and all throughout the world.

Thanks for reading!

Okay now this is a big project, I will give feedback of design and usability, I also played a little bit on the website and notice some things.

I shall add notes!

One thing that I would like the say is that myspace.com should be something more than a social network because it's a music network and social together, lots of interest things can be done there! From much more nicer and stylish music player to a nice interface of whole user accounts. Now when you go to an user account it's full of fancy, glittering and other stuffs which pufffss into your eyes, and you are there to listen music and know more about an artist not to hurt your eyes. Me as a designer I always try NOT to go on the myspace page of an user to listen to music...

I was never been MS fan , The reasons are below:

Here are some points from Business Point View and a Users Perspective: 1. I like to have only my friends in my social network , so i don't like to use " Browse " feature , with unwanted faces. 2. MS only talks about Music and Movies, I suggest to make it general Social Network and then users can customize their profiles under Categories , Entertainment , Sports , Arts etc. 3. Once their profile is set in Categories , then show them only related Data and also advertisements. 4. Try to facilitate users with their profile interest and click experience. Not everyone Interested in Everything.

Some problems in Design are Listed in Notes

Regards -Sadia-

OK, so there's a lot to consider here. Of course, MySpace is - er, uh - WAS a huge social media giant and has been falling since facebook kicked it off the top.

But of course, MySpace has still a big place in the social media world where it currently is almost unrivaled for bands and musicians wanting to freely and easily set up a free avenue to promote their music. I think MySpace should really focus on this aspect going forward.

But on to this redesign...

At first I was thinking, "meh, it's not bad. It's clean, it's simple, and it's unimposing."

But that alone falls very short of the mark for MySpace. For several reasons...

1. Clean and simple just because is not really good. Clean and simple because it supports your message rocks. But when it just is, it sucks. I don't really see how the clean, simple and minimal aspects of their design really support anything about their product or service. In fact, somewhat to the contraray. Because once you step inside, MySpace is far more complex both in its design and in its architecture of how you engage with the rest of the site.
2. The home page fails to communicate any strong message about itself or why I should want to enter it. It's just a big banner ad basically for whomever is promoting on myspace this week/weekend/month. I'd love to see MySpace actually have a better promotion for itself or its content on the homepage, not a big advertisement. Advertisements make money, but they also bore users.

I'm not even going to go on with other critiques because I feel so strongly that the main problem with this design is in the two points I've just touched on that if those things were addressed we'd be looking at an entirely different design.

Let's face it myspace was one of the original social networking sites before facebook, twiiter and all the others. Predominantly aimed at bands and musicians; look what the arctic monkeys did for one! I even had a dabble and still have pages up there.

From what I can remember the branding on myspace has never changed. For an established and credible name a re-design, I think, can only be a positive thing in the current market... surely!?

Given the target audience and what myspace has to offer this re-design is pretty poor from a conversion point of view and certainly doesn't look like a 16-25 site from the home page. It's says nothing about customization, the benefits or the networking possibilities.

From a usability and accessibility point of view it's actual quite sound and well executed. The live one actually looks well built but just lacks a modern edge. Which is where we come back to re-branding.

Re-Brand Myspace Owners - You can do better!

This is possibly the worst design of a huge website that I have ever seen. It seems as though they have gone for the facebook simplicity but have missed the boat in huge way!

No effort has really been put into this at all. No creativity, the design is way to bland for site that, after all, was THE flagship social networking site of it's day. What happened Myspace, what happened :( .

It's too much wasted space on homepage. There's no clear call to action. The top navigation is good but can be enhanced with just minor touches.

The main content misses interactivity and movement. Looks too static and not like a big community.

MySpace as a product is only relevant in niche categories (urban and music). The front website should be updated to reflex that, and should have legitimacy in its branding. MySpace has lost a lot of users, and a complete redesign (including logo and color palette) is necessary to take this product upward.

I particular notice that MySpace's colors are too close to Facebook's, but is not as effective or well designed. A lot of corners have been cut, and I feel a lot of mismatched design elements.