I wrote earlier about the degree to which MySpace sucks as a model for staying in touch. Truth is, I really don’t care. MySpace is in it purely for profit, so it only makes sense that they’d try to confuse the hell out of their users while assaulting them with ads. That’s my perspective, at least.
Not everyone sees it my way, though. We get the “how does facebook do it?” question all the time. The answer is typically, “they do it wrong,” but I get the thought process behind the question. One would only assume that social networks have built their [user] experience around [user] behavior and that popularity demonstrates a successful implementation of [user] interface.
So, I give you MySpace, the most popular social network. Its user interface is most definitely not built around user behavior. Requiring 6 - 21+ clicks to send a friend a message should be sufficient proof of that.
Think facebook is any better? Nope. They just save you the effort of looking for the log in form by requiring you log in before you do anything at all.
So, the next time you find yourself asking how the popular sites “do it”, step back and also ask how you should be doing it. I like to think the latter is the better question.
Moral of the story: beware what you clone. We’ve all seen Multiplicity.
Related to the moral of the story: man, I wish I had my copy of Multiplicity with me last weekend while I was getting coffee.
