Looking at MySpace pages or other similar social sites that allow users to customize how they look is often followed by a scream of “pain” because of the colors, sounds and other elements of the pages. At least this is opinion I’m hearing from my friends.
Interestingly enough, reading the latest issues of First Monday there is an article: Five heuristics for designing and evaluating Web-based communities by Linda M. Gallant, Gloria M. Boone, and Austin Heap.
One of more interesting findings of their studies is:
The best communities allow creativity by their members. This category encompasses the novel, the new, the risk, the mystery, the thrill, and the flow-like experience that can happen in using technology and content in new ways. Overall, most focus group participants felt MySpace was more flexible and interactive, and allowed for more creativity than Facebook. Comments from the participants exemplify this heuristic. “Facebook has limited flexibility…My Space is very interactive, completely flexible, [you can] design it how you want.” §
This makes me think that when developing/designing for young, creative audiences one should not impose too much structured design on them, but rather give them reasonable defaults and pre-made themes and then take a step back and allow them to be creative. It is their platform anyway and we shouldn’t be thinking like it is some sort of corporate environment where everyone has to be 100% pleased or at least not offended. Being a teenager is about offending everyone while still staying cool to your close circle.
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