MySpace is rolling out their new re-design, as of yesterday, which the brilliant folks at Adaptive Path played a large part in. I’m always impressed by their work, but I was surprised by the screenshots of the redesign I saw on Valleywag who notes:
“When Fox Interactive began interviewing Web designers for the job last fall, they told the candidates the main goal was to match rival Facebook feature-for-feature.”
Surprised because it seems like MySpace might be foregoing the design elements that made it so popular in the first place.
Friendster way back when…
Think back to 2004, when Friendster was all the rage. See below referanced obligatory trend graph…
At that time MySpace quickly surpassed Friendster — with easy linking to profiles that could spread over IM, self-promotion from bands and musicians, and a digitally native audience of hipsters, punks, and urban youth.
In retrospect, Friendster was so eager to attend the high school junior prom that is Web 2.0, that it pre-boozed itself into drunk, dry-heaving oblivion before the dancing even began. It forgot who it’s core audience was, but MySpace’s anti-design site design really resonated with the need for personalization. And as Danah Boyd pointed out — MySpace built a huge following amongst specific socio-economic divisions — those hipsters and punks, for example.
But by following Facebook, is MySpace abandoning its audience? Did its original design contribute to its success?
