MySpace Design 101

Good design isn’t synonymous with MySpace. The default theme is terrible. Tons of custom themes have been produced, but most of them are patently nasty.

You pay a visit to the average MySpace page, and amid the music set to auto play, the completely disjointed layout and the contrast between the ads, the menu at the top, and many of the spaces below often looking so bad it happens to induce laughter, there seems little or no room for improvement. It’s like looking at a home painted a dozen different hues after it’s been blasted by a Cat 5 hurricane and perhaps trampled by a stray, hulking elephant that happened to go berserk at the sight of the ramshackle abode. You feel sorry for the owner of the disaster, and yet you really just want to leave the premises ASAP. Not good. Not good at all.

But a recent post on Mashable, one of the Web’s most prominent blogs focused on the world of social networking, got me thinking about the possibility that all may not be lost. That there may be hope for what is arguably the ugliest duckling of Web 2.0. (I presume many, many others have pondered this topic as well by a look at the number of Diggs for the post.) In the piece, Mashable’s Stan Schroeder assembles a list of about 16 or so MySpace pages and themes that he’s dubbed the “best MySpace layouts that don’t look like MySpace at all.” Let’s take a look.

You’ll need to note that we’re still dealing with the limitations of MySpace, and that some picks won’t look worthy in the least to many readers. Some of Mr Schroeder’s picks do still have tinges of terrible, which we’ll try to point out without giving you any undesired details, but in the whole scheme of things, we can see why he has chosen not to cut more from the list prior to publication.

The deconstruction:

‘destructzero’: A question mark is what comes to mind for this one. It’s pointless. Stan says it’s minimalist, but looks more like nothingness to us. Throw ‘destruct’ away and what are you left with? That’s right.

‘justinadlock’:Titled “facebook on myspace” this page is a decent construction, though if Zuckerberg sees this pick, he might get a teensy bit annoyed.

‘bigbabygrace’: We have to say, this one’s fairly inventive. Makes for a fun page. Toss away the auto play, though. The so-called “feature” is the bane of Web-based societies everywhere. That is, if the music’s not appetizing. If the tune’s good, that’s a different story, but considering that such exceptions are completely relatively, scratch out all the ifs, ands, and buts. No auto play. Ever.

‘d0401’: We suppose it’s better than nothing (for nothing, see ‘destructzero’ above), but it’s kind of…hm…boring? It’s clean, though. We’ll give it that. Overall, our feeling is that it can stay on the list.

‘cruz_control_mtl’: Um, no. Definitely not to be kept on the list. Shouldn’t have been considered for a spot in the first place.

‘robthunder_com’: We can see where the creator of this page is going with the theme, but it’s only that. A theme. Good idea. Run with it a bit more, eh?

‘stopmyspacing’: Ah, a bit of wisdom to consider. Check this page out. Read it through. See how you feel. Agree? We thought you might.

‘alanmarchman’:It’s sparse, but impactful. Hopefully Tom will get around to reading what Marchman has to say. As for the design, it could use a change in color.

‘eminentstyle’: If only the top two inches of the page could be removed. Permanently. And Ben needs to consider being a little more resourceful when it comes to real estate, particularly in the header. This is another (mostly) generic theme/layout, by the bye.

‘abcbruce’:No, thanks. You need to think about it too much. People don’t like to think on MySpace. Clashes of left and right brain are inevitable with this one, so in our view it’s a no-go.

‘dhranj’:A standing ovation to Dan. Anyone think there’s something philosophical in this creation? No? Just crude humor? Great nonetheless. Sure, social networking takes second place to character (literally) animation, but still. Superb craftsmanship. A hee-hee-hee and a ho-ho-ho from us, Mr Funny.

‘kgandstuff’:Wonderful. If only one could opt for something so clearly superior to the MySpace default. Nothing but cheers to the designer.

‘hyalineeston’: Clearly a lot of work went into this space. Everything is polished, colors complement one another. It’s definitely top notch. Kudos to the digital sculptor of this page.

‘andrewonrails’:Simple. Straightfoward. Complete. Tasteful. Enough said.

‘onlylucio’: Very good. Great use of real estate. And friends list is put on a back burner. We like that. The space is utilized for the space’s owner. As it should be.

‘mikeindustries’: It’s okay, but clearly the list wasn’t closed with the best of picks. Which we suppose is fitting. The arrangement lets us come off the high amassed at the end in order to prepare for the hellish experiences that await us within the remaining 99.99999999999% of the network.

Overall, a decent collection. If MySpace wishes to put an end to the headaches, they’ll study the four or five best items here very, very closely and emulate best they can – without losing the whole focus of the network, of course.

Let’s hope they do so fast, though. The MySpace generation is quite a critical bunch, visually speaking. They won’t stand for ugly when they can get less ugly - or better yet, pretty – elsewhere. Then again, they’ve been using MySpace for years. Perhaps they’ve grown immune to bad design. If that’s so…well, let’s just pray it isn’t.