Templates and Branding
Few of the other community sites like Friendster and MySpace allow the personalization of profile pages like MySpace allows.
How important is it for a site or page to differentiate itself from the rest of the crowd? Facebook although wonderfully desinged (nice going Bryan, doesn’t allow for the customization of pages and therefore every profile page looks the same. Now there are many other factors to the success of MySpace over Facebook, but I wonder how big of a role did customization play?
When Weblogs, Inc. started, every single site looked the same. I always hounded Calacanis about branding and making every site unique, but I also understood the dilemma he was facing. When you have over 80 sites, it’s not feasible to make every single one look different. Sure you can change some colors around and do a different logo, but 80 unique designs in a short period of time is nearly impossible.
How much of a role did design play in the success of WIN? Again, I am not too sure of this, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most popular sites in the network are the ones that offer their own unique designs.
With the Fine Fools sites I never had any intentions to change the designs of the sites so that they all stood out on their own because it was just my own little project and doing a unique design for 2-3 new sites a week just wasn’t going to happen. However in just this short period of time since I introduced the Community I realized it won’t be just a small project and that the writers will want their sites to be at least slightly different from the rest.
But how can this be achieved? The challenge involved is that I would like for each site to exhibit a bit of personality while also maintaining a certain look and feel so that people are aware it is part of a Community. But really how important do you think something like this is with regards to the success of the site? I know I have asked this question a million times in the past, but can you really have one template that helps each site achieve its own branding, while also maintaing the overall brand of the Community?
Related reading:
You were 100% right, and we knew from the start the pros and cons of both models.
I have to agree that blogs are so personal that they need a personal look and feel.
By Jason on October 5, 2005 3:49 pm
Well you see Jason I wasn’t really offering free consultation so can I ask where my check is? ;-)
And even though your sites are still ugly I’m glad you have put a better focus on the design of them.
By Scrivs on October 5, 2005 3:52 pm
Best example of a site that offers very little customization but is at the top of their genre would be Flickr. It’s a pretty basic interface for each user, but the photos posted are the customization. Just a thought.
By Dominic Damian on October 5, 2005 4:16 pm
As for me if a site is to attract me, it must look good, regardless of the content. Visual design is important not only for a single site, but for a network too.
But generally I think there’s no need for a unique design for each site in the network as far as some basic aspects are fulfilled.
These are that the overall network design is great and the network don’t contain big number of sites (let’s say more than 10).
But this certainly don’t apply to a network like 9rules (because of the size). Right here it’s great to see so many different (and great) designs. Rather it suits for a network like Fine Fools.
By Jakub on October 5, 2005 4:55 pm
The customization of MySpace is precisely what turns me off to it. Hell, let’s just be honest here — who really wants to wait for a damn Avril Lavigne video to load when all I’m trying to do is see if this girl is hot or not? Facebook is my community site of choice, and the design has a lot to do with it (more kudos to Bryan).
Perhaps I’m just a snob, but not everyone is a designer, and allowing them to design anyway is just asking for your site to be unusable, slow, and damn ugly.
All that said, many people I know like the customization of MySpace and Xanga. So really, what do I know? :)
By Jeff Croft on October 5, 2005 5:04 pm
A generic design can also suit a network of weblogs that center around one specific vertical market - especially when readers aren’t very likely to read more than one blog in the network.
However, for networks that cover a diverse range of subjects, I think that dual branding is a good idea. Each property in the network needs to be able to stand on its own two feet, but where’s the value from being part of a network if you don’t somehow incorporate your network branding into either your design or content?
Anyway in a lot of cases, generic network-wide branding or templating would look odd. Wouldn’t it be weird using the same design/layout for a cancer blog and a blog about underground/hacking stuff?
By Barry Bell on October 5, 2005 5:13 pm
I really wouldn’t say anything about Myspace one-uping Facebook. Sure, we’re not as big as they are, but we’re not on the same playing field as them. They’re open worldwide, we’re only open at English-speaking colleges and all US high schools. :)
Now with the numbers aside, we’re not a “make your profile pretty” place, we’re a place where you go, find your friends and mingle. The profile is just like a page in a school directory. We just happen to add more to it. I’ve gotten some emails requesting people to change their profiles, but if they really want to do that, then go to MySpace. Our product is of better quality. Plain and simple.
By Bryan Veloso on October 5, 2005 5:15 pm
I think the customization definetly gets more people to use a site, and therefore explore it’s features. But it does lead to ugly pages and, I think, less of an oportunity for branding.
I think the success of MySpace of Xanga over facebook is the fact that xanga keeps you on for a while. Whether authoring posts, or reading them your stay on for a while. Once you have had a facebook profile for a few months you just accept people whenever you get a request, and don’t even bother looking around.
By Wesley Walser on October 5, 2005 5:17 pm
I think a good example of something being different from it’s siblings, yet part of the same whole is to look at all the different Law & Order’s that are out there now. You have the original, then Criminal Intent, and SVU. Each is clearly a L&W show, yet each one provides a slightly different twist that separates them from the others.
I would make the same comparison with CSI, but lets face it, other than the name there’s no real continuity between the shows.
All in all, while it is important to remember the brand identity, it is also important that every derivative has the capacity to stand on its own were it not part of the whole.
By Steven Ametjan on October 5, 2005 5:33 pm
@Jeff - Are you wondering if Avril is hot, or the girl who has her video embedded in her MySpace page? Chances are, if she’s got that video on her site, she’s probably too young for you. :)
It’s a really interesting paradox you bring up, Scrivs. I suppose the answer varies depending on what the model of the business is. MySpace just wants as many members as it can. And it’s not as if the pages are THAT personalized. They all look pretty much the same, with a different background or something like that. And nearly all of them annoy me!
The use of badges, like on Blogger, seems a fairly minimalist approach. Whereas Yahoo 360 pages look pretty much the same.
Find what works best for each case…boy, I really contributed a lot to this discussion. My post boils down to “do whatever works.”
By Dave Simon on October 5, 2005 5:51 pm
Aha! I have something to add, maybe it will have some substance.
Remember during the dot com boom, many “businesses” were built on a brand alone. A talking sock puppet or something like that. But there was nothing to them.
People figured out that some of these businesses were all flash, no pan. 9rules itself is content, content, content. Quality content. (Whereas it has much less content than myspace, how many college students who think they are deep do you really need? Seen one, seen them all.)
I guess what I’m saying is that you have put together 9rules, and it has some of the best content on the web. It also happens to have some of the best designed sites for that content. But none of them look the same. But as loyal readers, we know they are 9rules affiliates, and we know seeing that logo means we’ll find good content.
Paul Rand believed that even the most clever logo would not be a brand without a company to back it up. Splashing a logo on something doesn’t brand something. Putting a logo on something, telling someone what that logo stands for, and backing that up with reality, is what a brand is.
Hope that makes sense.
By Dave Simon on October 5, 2005 5:58 pm
Dave-
I was referring to the girl, not Avril ( I know she’s hot, and I don’t need a video to load to prove it). :)
For the record, if they’re legal, they’re not too young. ;)
Jeff
Destroying all professional decorum he may have had with this crowd.
By Jeff Croft on October 5, 2005 6:09 pm
Is it really fair to say MySpace is more successful than Facebook?
Sure, MySpace is much bigger, but each Facebook user gives them tons and tons of personal information ripe for the targeting of advertising! College students are a pretty attractive demographic.
Yes, I’d think MySpace has more users and gets much more traffic, but it seems they should, since MySpace serves such a wider demographic.
By Scott Kidder on October 6, 2005 6:24 am
Something like 85% of University of North Carolina students have Facebook accounts. I would hardly call that a failure.
By Jackson Fox on October 6, 2005 9:40 am
It’s gotta be close to that here, at Kansas State (where I work) and the University of Kansas, too. It’s insane how many people have facebook accounts. I can’t walk through the University library without seeing someone bitching someone else out for hogging the public computers just to check their facebook.
By Jeff Croft on October 6, 2005 7:35 pm
Now this is damn good post!
I’m far too old and happily married to contribute to the myspace vs facebook debate. But I can add an opinion or two about the importance of design to the value of a network.
First, I’d like to split “design” into three categories: visual appeal, information architecture, and ad placement. An ideal network template will give the network owners the control over IA and ad placement while allowing some visual flexibility at the individual site level.
Of course, the importance of that template will vary with the network’s business model. For example, the network that depends on advertising revenue at the individual site level will have different needs than the network that depends on a meta site for its revenue.
The designer’s role is ultimately to add value to his client’s work. If I can design a template that allows the network owners to maximize page views and play with ad sizes and placement from a centralized location, while allowing flexibility at the individual site level, then I’m adding to the overall value of the network.
As for network brand value, again that depends on business model, no?
By Peter Flaschner on October 9, 2005 12:00 pm
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but the reason facebook—in my opinion—isn’t as popular as myspace is because it is only for universities. It doesn’t even link community colleges. That leaves people out. Guess where they are.
I much prefer facebook. The design is so much better and I can *gasp* actually read everyone’s profile. I’d be willing to bet that 90% of the people who modify their myspace pages have also rendered them illegible.
This doesn’t even take into account that facebook is actually usable.
By Joe Clay on October 10, 2005 12:01 am
I’ve managed to save up roughly $11685 in my bank account, but I’m not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?
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To answer your question, the ability to customize your profile played a HUGE role in MySpace’s early success. I was there from the beginning, and in fact I designed the UI (yeah, yeah, I know, everyone hates the UI… but it’s hard to argue with $580 MILLION!!!).
Anyway, contrary to what Tom, Chris, or any other MySpace exec says these days, the site did NOT start out as a music portal. That came months down the road. It was, pure and simple, a direct knock-off of Friendster. So how did MySpace differentiate itself in the early days from Friendster, Xanga, and others… by letting their members customize their profiles! It was a very conscious strategy.
Hope that answers your question.
By Rob S. on May 18, 2006 5:23 pm