Slick Flash portfolio of photographer Francois-Xavier Marciat.

MySpace bashing seems to be a favorite pastime, especially among “designers” who can’t comprehend the appeal of a star-splattered, blinking, emo-blasting profile page. I personally believe that there’s always something interesting to be learned when we step outside of our usual circles, and so I jumped at the chance to be part of this redesign. Although I am not the target user, as I quickly realized, MySpace had played an important role in my life, so I was eager to understand MySpace, its users, and how to better support them.

Being the interaction designer on this project demanded a great deal of empathy for a user base that is incredibly diverse but often surprisingly different from myself or my Facebook friends. The sheer number of users that would be impacted by the redesign made this project a massive undertaking. I look forward to sharing more about the challenges and design decisions that drove this redesign in the near future.

For now, I’m excited that this work is becoming reality, much thanks to my colleague Ryan’s close collaboration with the MySpace team and Sequence, our visual design partner, over the past 6 months. Congrats to all!

Adaptive Path News
MySpace Press Release

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In conjunction with the Street Art exhibition at the Tate Modern, various works
have appeared in the area surrounding the Fibre studio.

Artists from Spain, Italy, France and Brazil were all showing works at the gallery
and in the nearby streets. Some placed legally, some appear to have been done
without permission. Either way, the message would seem to be the same:
Street art’s ok so long as the perpetrator’s not from Britain.

In a decision I support, the gallery purposefully excluded Banksy in an attempt
to draw attention to other just as accomplished artists and aspects of the art
form. Just a shame I think not to celebrate some more of our own emerging
and already established talent.
There is a map of the route available for download on the Tate website.

A slick site with immersing images from Natasja Fourie.

When one of the largest, most heavily-trafficked sites on the web redesigns, it’s bound to make some news. MySpace is launching a series of improvements to its design and architecture, and Adaptive Path is enormously proud to announce our involvement in that effort. For the past six months, my team and I have collaborated with an amazing team of MySpace designers and engineers to create the next evolution of the MySpace user experience.

As you may have read on TechCrunch, next Wednesday a completely redesigned MySpace global navigation and site home page will launch, bringing what Adaptive Path focuses on - constructing elegant and intuitive experiences for users - to a massive scale. With each design decision being weighed by its impact on tens of millions of users, this redesign represents some of the most challenging and exciting work we’ve ever had the opportunity to engage in.

MySpace began its redesign efforts in September, and has been gradually changing the site since then. Adaptive Path began working with MySpace shortly thereafter, and the changes coming this week represent the debut of the MySpace-Adaptive Path collaboration. There will be opportunity to discuss our work in detail, but for the time being, I want to express some gratitude to the people that made all of this possible. On the AP side, I want to thank my colleagues Teresa Brazen, Alexa Andrzejewski, Todd Wilkens, Todd Elliott and Jesse James Garrett for ensuring the exceptional quality of our work and our collaboration with MySpace. I also would like to thank the immensely talented and dedicated MySpace team: David Leslie, Mari Bower, Phil Cheung, Sharon Nguyen, Jennifer Zweben, and Jake Levine.

The level of executive sponsorship for this effort was amazing. This redesign would not have happened without the efforts and oversight of Tom Anderson, Tom Andrus, Steve Pearman, Amit Kapor and Chris DeWolfe.

The upcoming launch represents the first phase in a MySpace Renaissance that will fundamentally improve the MySpace user experience. I’m delighted to have reached this milestone alongside the MySpace team, and eager for what comes next.

Read what people are saying:

• Screenshots of MySpace’s redesign, coming next week
• MySpace to release major site redesign
• MySpace to Shake up Its Layout

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The rise of Ajax and rich internet applications has thrown the limitations of traditional wireframing into painful relief. When you leave the world of page-based interactions, how do you document all but the simplest interactions? Flowcharts and diagrams don’t work. Prototyping saves the day by focusing on the application and conveying its "magic." Prototypes can help you sell a decision that is fundamentally or radically different from the client’s current solution or application. Sit a stakeholder down in front of a working prototype and show him or her why your approach is compelling.

 

Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

The rise of Ajax and rich internet applications has thrown the limitations of traditional wireframing into painful relief. When you leave the world of page-based interactions, how do you document all but the simplest interactions? Flowcharts and diagrams don’t work. Prototyping saves the day by focusing on the application and conveying its "magic." Prototypes can help you sell a decision that is fundamentally or radically different from the client’s current solution or application. Sit a stakeholder down in front of a working prototype and show him or her why your approach is compelling.

 

Hide Your Shame: The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs! Old favorites remixed! S, M, L, XL. Come shop with us!

Some pretty awesome things going on at Stiletto NYC.

Some delicious updates from the wonderful Alex Trochut.

Karpa is the work of David Carvalho.