robscherer.com

I think this page is more of a criminal web page than a web page about a criminal.

I get angry every time I go to MySpace. Thing is, I just don’t get it! I don’t understand how a site that breaks just about every researched, well understood and documented usability/user experience rule or principle can be one of the most popular and successful properties on the internet. It would have been OK in 1998 but it looks like that is where it is trapped and will stay forever as long as people keep using it like they do!

I ‘get’ user generated. I heart user generated. I think user generated is what the internet is all about. But, I don’t get MySpace!

The page in question, as I’m sure you’ve gathered, was created by the Arkansas Police Department as an attempt to raise public awareness of a wanted armed robber. It seems like a good idea and I’m really impressed with the constabulary embracing the internet and being open to trying new things.

What pisses me off most is the fact that my entire office jumped up and came to my desk when my computer was hijacked by the Citizens on Patrol music that started playing on page load. Further, take a look at the page! Even the MySpace navigation has been made illegible by the greenback background. How can MySpace allow their own navigation style to be hijacked by the user?

So, I guess I really don’t see how the social attraction of MySpace can remain with such poor usability, usefulness, readability and desirability

At a time when my team is busy defining a user experience strategy, I have to ask myself, why do we bother?