New Myspace has a lot of features taken from various social media sites crammed into one, and it can... [+]
In 2008 I ditched my Myspace page and with no regrets turned exclusively to Facebook for all my social media needs. It was great to be able to look at a friend’s profile without staring at obnoxious layouts or that “Hey There Delilah” song by the Plain White T’s automatically playing.
So when I saw that sleek video for the new Justin Timberlake-themed social media site called, New Myspace, I was for the first time in years actually eager to type “Myspace” into my browser.
Having tinkered with the site for a few weeks, here are some of my initial thoughts, and keep in mind that it’s kind of hard to really critique a social media site that hasn’t built a community yet. So, this focuses on the functionality, features and design of the site.
What is it for?
There’s a lot to do on the New Myspace. Basically think of it as a mashup of Spotify, Facebook, iTunes, Pandora, YouTube, Pinterest, the old Myspace and that Ping thing that didn’t work. It’s actually pretty exciting, the problem is, though, there’s nothing tying all of these ingredients together.
I have no idea what the main goal of the New Myspace is. At first glance one would think it’s just a site to find and listen to music on. But then why does it have a radio and a video section? Why do I make connections with people and update a status and upload pictures and have a profile? Essentially, if you’re overwhelmed by all of Facebook’s features you’ll likely have an emotional breakdown looking at the New Myspace.
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, which are pretty much aimed at everyone, New Myspace really only targets creative-type people between the ages of 10 and 25. For example, the options to describe yourself only extend to filmmaker, musician, designer, writer, comedian or others.
How does it work?
Because of the creative liberties the designers of the New Myspace took (sideways scrolling and the banner at the bottom, which I’ll get to later) the site isn’t exactly the most intuitive to use. Take for example the videos. Can you make them full screen? I still haven’t figured it out.
Since I was only able to find a handful of people I actually know (after about 45 minutes of sideways scrolling), I’m not as familiar with the social aspect of the site as I’d like to be, but I have the general idea. You can see what other people have listened to and what they watched on the “connections” profiles. Users can also share “what’s the latest” using 150 characters, which is essentially a shorter Facebook status and a slightly longer tweet.
One note: If you’re the type of person that doesn’t like seeing enormous pictures of yourself, then the New Myspace isn’t for you, because while you're scrolling (sideways) through a “profile mix,” the person’s picture takes up half the screen.
I love the music player that is fixed at the bottom of the screen. While listening to the radio or to an album, it stays with you as you navigate from page to page. When you are searching through artists and albums, it’s really easy to just drag songs and videos into your queue in the music player. The search bar is actually one of the coolest features, because all you do is just start typing and the search term fills your screen, and the result is organized by artists, albums, songs, people, mixes, etc. How does it look?
The New Myspace looks great. There are tons of big photos and blocked content in the Pinterest style. It’s futuristic with a clean look that has a lot going on, but never feels too cluttered. The design is kind of like being in an Apple store and the colors are vibrant and sterile, like the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
What kept bothering me was how every page was laid out. Not only is there too much to do on the New Myspace, but it’s hard to find all of it. The home banner is at the bottom of the page along with the notifications and discover tab, as opposed to the top of the page on pretty much every other website. Change is good, but in this sense it’s aggravating trying to get acquainted with a new site and feeling completely out of place.
Why do I have to scroll sideways?
In theory, scrolling sideways seems like a fresh, almost unique idea. Then after a few seconds of browsing you realize how unnatural it feels. And after spending time on the New Myspace then switching to a normal website, you feel like you have lost control of all motor skills. Really, it wouldn’t be as big of a pain if the scrolling wasn’t so jerky. The same feeling happens when you move your mouse to the top left of the screen (to go back to the homepage) only to realize that the site banner is at the bottom of the page. But why? The only answer is: this is the New Myspace.
This sideways scrolling pretty much sums up the New Myspace perfectly: Yes, this is something that is possible to do on a social media site, but is it necessary?
Overall
The New Myspace looks really slick. The problem is these modern updates and twists on standard Web page layouts makes the site difficult to use and frustrating to navigate.
While a lot of the features on the site, like the music player, were amazing and fun to use, they don’t all fit together in one coherent package. Maybe all of this stuff will make sense when there’s more people on the site to share with, but for now it’s just too much to handle. My biggest concern is how all of this could possibly fit into a functioning mobile app. With the struggles that a fairly simple site like Facebook has seen transitioning to mobile users, I couldn’t imagine how the New Myspace could work on my iPhone. And how could any new social media site survive in an increasingly mobile world?
Find me on Twitter, Facebook or even on the New Myspace.
