News Corporation?s popular social networking site MySpace has announced the launch a series of changes and additions to the core functionality of the site. Such changes will include the home page, navigation, profile editing, search and the addition of MySpaceTV player.
MySpace hopes the announcement will empower the site?s community on a global basis, and allow for a more intuitive experience on the social network.
Tom Anderson, president and co-founder of MySpace (who is also a ?friend? to each MySpace user) commented, ?A year ago we set out on a path to rethink the way people interact with the fundamental features of MySpace. These changes lay the groundwork for what is to come ? by the early fall we expect to reveal an entirely new and remixed MySpace that deepens the engagement of current users and attracts new ones.?
As of June 18, the primary login page for MySpace users will have a brand new look and feel that will highlight new content from the MySpace community, including news, blogs, video, music and ?top 10? charts. The biggest change for the splash page will be a ?larger creative palette? for advertisers, which will potentially increase advertising revenue for the social network by giving them more space and flexibility on one of the sites highest trafficked pages.
A long held frustration of MySpace users is that updating their profile can be somewhat challenging. The new profile editor MySpace is introducing will allow users to customise their profile through a selection of styles and granularly detail their sections from pre-set colour palette of borders and images. Users wanting more personalised pages will still have the ability to fully customise their page using HTML.
The changes soon to be rolled out are as a result of in-house usability studies, online surveys, impromptu testing, focus groups and user feedback on Tom?s profile.
San Francisco user strategy and design company
Adaptive Path has been appointed to undertake a number of the user interface changes.