Design and Functionality

So after more than a year I am reviving this blog. In this entry I'm going to talk about my take on how sites design and their UI functionality impact how successful they are or can be.
To start with I'm going to dive into the social networks. This is because they have more or less taken over the internet if you haven't already noticed. You can't go anywhere without seeing a facebook like button or a twitter button. This is because they saw an opportunity to expand, and created simple yet excellent icons that almost everyone on the internet will recognize. After all being able to share cool stuff and information is the greatest impact social networking has.
So why are these two succeeding and places like MySpace left in the dust? There are many reasons but I am going to discuss the design and functionality issues. First MySpace was great in how much it could be customized and things that could be added. However very soon there was WAY TOO MUCH. People (mostly teens and preteens) of the time started jamming their pages with tons of videos, music, gifs, and moving backgrounds. Some pages you could have seizures just from looking at them. And while they might not realize it, that's not what people want to see. It's much easier for us to absorb information if it displayed in unified and standard formats. This does not mean it cannot be loud and fun (design-wise not literally please), just that making it the same for everyone makes it easier for the user - people and friends viewing the page - to read and comprehend.
The other failing point MySpace had was the lack of connecting functionality. Sure it was already losing ground fast when facebook came out with the the OAuth and the like button was spread everywhere, but they could have just as easily done something similar for their users. They were too stubborn to keep to the style of site that had got them going, but people really were looking for better ways to connect.
If you noticed I stayed away from Twitter after mentioning it earlier. Twitter is very unique site called a micro blogging site. Similar to send out mass text messages to anyone who has your phone number. What they have done is take a simple concept and breathed life into it. From a design perspective they have achieved a happy medium between the social information source facebook and the custom happy MySpace. On the main twitter site you can decide what colors and background image you want to use. And that's pretty much it. The layout itself cannot be changed for individual users. This keeps everything organized in the same manner while allowing users some personalization freedom. They even allow third party sites and apps to access data using their OAuth so people are very free to choose how they view the twitter service.
So how does this relate to your average site and its design and functionality? First remember that the site does not only need to look good. It needs to work fast, smoothly, and be simple and welcoming to new users. If you look a most of the popular sites, they use a light colored color scheme. Generally whites and blues are popular because they are easy on the eyes. If you want to look cool and use dark themes with light text, try to include an option to switch to a light color scheme. Also another easy thing to do it make sure its obvious what can be clicked on and what everything in the navigation does. You might have some parts of the site off the main page that are very cool, but rarely get views because most users don't see the navigation for it or know what its for.