Plot: I want to send a friend a message but don’t have their email address. I do know that they’re on MySpace. Should be pretty simple to ping them over there, right?
Scenario 1
This person is already my friend on MySpace.
- Fire up myspace.com.
- Search for the name.
- Click on the profile link.
- Click “Send Message” in contact options.
- Take a minute to figure out that you’ve just been bounced back to the front page.
- Log in.
- Use the form to send a note to your friend.
If you spot the “you must be logged in to do that” message, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, start over.
6 page views, 37 ad impressions to send a note. Assuming, of course, that I remember my password and don’t wander.
Scenario 2
This person is not yet my friend on MySpace.
- Fire up myspace.com.
- Search for the name.
- Click on the profile link.
- Click add to friends.
- Submit form.
- Wait for friend to accept me. (This will take him 3 page views to do.)
- Receive authorization from friend by via MySpace.
- Log in
- View automated acceptance message.
- Click on profile link.
- Click “Send Message” in contact options.
- Use the form to send a note to your friend.
11 page views, something like 54 ad impressions to send a note.
Scenario 3
I don’t have a MySpace account.
- Fire up myspace.com.
- Click sign up.
- Proceed through 5 – 7 pages of profile information.
- Submit.
- Check email for confirmation request.
- Click confirmation link.
- Search for the name.
- Click on the profile link.
- Click add to friends.
- Submit form.
- Wait for friend to accept me. (This will take him 3 page views to do.)
- Receive authorization from friend by via MySpace.
- Log in
- View automated acceptance message.
- Click on profile link.
- Click “Send Message” in contact options.
- Use the form to send a note to your friend.
18-21 page views if I know exactly what I’m doing, fill out all information immediately, and do not add any photos. I also have two trips to my email client and cause my friend to 6 page views to accept my request and then read my note. Ad impressions will vary slightly depending on the path, but I saw approximately 80.
Let’s not forget that these are 6 to 21 of the most cluttered pages you’ll find on the Internet. It takes serious dedication to not wander off.
Maybe it’s time for an outside review.
6 Responses to “Staying in touch”
I have ceased to believe that MySpace even cares about usability. They want you to wander off; actual productivity of any kind, be damned!
They will continue to sell ad space because a good chunk of marketing executives are just now catching up with the MySpace/Social Network idea. They say “Hey, let’s be edgy. PUT AN AD ON MYSPACE!” And as long as MySpace is continuing to make money through these clueless execs, by fix what’s broken?
Sorry. I’ll go back to my little corner now.
There’s definitely a strategy behind it. Keep the herd on the run and keep them confused. Eventually you get ad clicks.
I recently saw an article on one of the business news sites (sorry lost the reference) trumpeting that MySpace was the most successful social netwoking company. Turns out they were measuring base don page views, and My space had 4x as many page views as Facebook. This kind of shows why they like to keep you clicking.
Yeah, but MySpace has a lot more “users” too. FWIW, though, I think they’re both sick.
Hi Aaron-
I don’t think the examples are fair.
In example 1, there is a link to message the person on the MySpace search results pages, so is only 4 steps, not 7: search, click send message, login, write message. Compare with Facebook: search, click send message, login (they kick you back to home page to login just like MySpace), after login, they dump you back to search page where you have to click send message again, write message. So it takes one extra step (5 total) on Facebook to accomplish same thing. Granted MySpace pages are loaded with ads along the way.
Regarding example 2, MySpace doesn’t require you to be friends with the person you are sending a message to. Requiring friendship is a privacy setting users can select. In the default case, it would take the same 4 steps to send a message to someone who wasn’t your friend as in example 1.
Hey DL. You’re forgetting the first step: fire up that circus (go to the site). And at 5 steps, you’re looking at this from the perspective of a proficient user. I won’t split hairs with you for 2 steps, though. It’s a mess either way.
Here’s my point: just because myspace or facebook does something doesn’t make it right. It’s more often the contrary. Neither serves as a process to emulate.