Archive for April, 2006

MySpace – I’ve always wanted to do this.

April 30, 2006

Ahh MySpace, one of the most popular web sites on the whole internet at the moment. Started by Tom, who ironically has a PhD in English and not in Computer Science, it has fast become one of the biggest sites on the Internet. But why? Look at it, it's ugly! Well I think there is a point to be made here – looks aren't everything. You can make the most gorgeous site but if what you offer is not what people want they just won't stay.

I'm going to make a bold statement though, MySpace itself isn't that badly designed. It may not be gorgeous but everything is easy enough to get to, it's rare you're left wandering around like a headless chicken. I think the problem for MySpace – at least when it comes to critcism from your average geek – is that they aren't very Web 2.0. Basically saying there ia severe lack of AJAX and such things (the top 8 selection was a nice addition though). As much as AJAX is a buzz word, the improvements to MySpace through some clever AJAX integration would make a world of difference. Things like adding comments should be done over AJAX, as should leaving photo comments. Another implementation of AJAX would be too introduce draggable boxes. The whole of your profile is made up of little boxes, why not let people be able to drag them about, make them bigger or smaller or simply delete them.

I think with some simple changes MySpace could be so much better, a bit more interactive and such.

MySpace.com 

Veerle’s Blog

April 30, 2006

Often a blog that is voted as being one of the best blog designs and, to be honest, it isn't hard to see why. It's an incredible design done entirely in XHTML and CSS and, just to hammer it home, it validates, perfectly. My favourite bit about it though is that there is lots of content but it never feels cluttered, it's all placed perfectly. This blog deserves an award or something, it's awesome.

Veerle's Blog

Rob Morris – Digital Mash

April 30, 2006

I love this guy's site. If you right click his face at the top you can select different emotions/looks. Really nice use of Flash but it doesn't impact the rest of the site which is always a bonus because, despite what many people think, not everyone has flash.

Digitalmash.com

For all those sites you never want to forget.

April 30, 2006

The amount of times I go on a web site and think "wow" and then never tell anyone is just stupid so I thought I'd start documenting it instead. I will blog here any web site or similar entity that makes me go "Phwoar".

And yes, that does include MySpace profiles because, in all fairness, anyone who makes MySpace look gorgeous deserves some recognition.

I also plan to include web sites that I deem to be predominately ugly.