MySpace Formatting Hell
I recently added my profile to the MySpace website after having heard about the site through every media outlet in existence. It's a lot like Friendster...a lot. But one of the distinguishing characteristics is that it allows members to customize the appearance of their profile pages to include music, photos, and HTML styles (background images, fonts, colors, etc.) Unfortunately, the majority of the profile pages employing custom styles are completely unusable. It's like browsing the web in 1997 all over again - blinking text, backgrounds that obscure text, and fonts that are impossible to read. I think it is funny how people will shun usability in the pursuit of a "unique" design.
I really thought that the web-at-large had moved beyond the use of horrible user interfaces through the spread of blogs which focus more on the content than the delivery mechanism. It is as though the teenagers or "young people" using MySpace are using a different World Wide Web than Internet veterans like myself. Sort of like the range of printed material aimed at different generations: comic books, novels, newspapers, etc. Does this mean I'm getting old?