Programmers and software folk have a term for this, although the web page where I first encountered it escapes me. It's roughly referred to as the "Jersey method" vs the "MIT way" of doing things.
The Jersey method often means doing things in a quick, ad-hoc, messy manner. Super practical and ugly looking, akin to the highway system (or lack thereof, har har) in the state of New Jersey. On the other end of the design spectrum is the MIT way, the exact way you wish you did something after encountering all of the warts in the Jersey method. It's perfect, clean, and without flaw. The Jersey method often prevails because it is always in working condition, although maybe not the best condition. The MIT way tends to end up remaining an idea without an implementation. So will bad design kill Facebook because it doesn't resemble the most MIT way of interaction and design? Probably not, because it still gets the job done and that's very Jersey. By the way, Loren, you absolutely nailed it. On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 2:28 PM, Christine Boese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Just to note a different perspective here, since the bias of this > professional group may be creating a bit of a blind spot, both about > Facebook, and indirectly, about Geocities. > > I did my dissertation ethnography of a grassroots cyberculture community in > the mid-90s. The goal of the study (as for all such studies) was to learn > from the COMMUNITY what tools and interfaces and interactions were > empowering for the community, and which were not. The community had to > teach > me, and I avoided imposing my own beliefs about certain tools on their > perceptions. I collected data. > > I can tell you (and this is replicated in many online communities of the > day), Geocities and Simplenet, and the others were ESSENTIAL for the > community to even to exist, to even coalesce and become empowered to do > what > they did. They meant EVERYTHING to these grassroots, REAL online > communities > (as opposed to communities manufactured by marketing people). > > The SNEERS of professional interface designers meant nothing to them. The > grassroots was empowered by a clunky tool, and took it, and exploded, > accomplished its goals, and far exceeded them. > > I'm sure many would say the same of the butt ugly MySpace as well, and > Facebook, Tribe, Friendster, et al. > > So to step back for a moment, to think about real audiences, users, > communities, vibrant cybercultures, and how dare they presume to exist and > use tools without our benevolent blessing and permission! What nerve of > them! <G> How dare those cats resist our herding! > > LOL. I like to think about a similar disconnect raised in other times, in > other places, as elites cite the superior quality of whatever sophisticated > technology they are touting, as a widespread, grassroots wildfire seizes > upon a weaker, lesser tool, because it is immediately accessable to them, > and can be quickly and easily appropriated for their needs. > > Funny how sometimes the self appointed high priest class so strongly > resists > the tearing apart of the curtain to the Holy of Holies. > > Here's the beginnings of a list: > > weak pathetic PCs vs. superior powerful mainframes > > HTML vs. SGML > > pathetic VHS vs. Beta > > Apple vs PC > > Messy Inky Printing Press Books vs. gorgeous, scriptoria-copied, > Monk-created illuminated manuscripts > > 2,000-character sets of hieroglyphs readable only by an elite priest class > vs.20+ character syllabic alphabets that could be read by slaves and > forment > revolution > > Chris > > > > > On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 1:56 PM, Benjamin Ho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I do agree that there is quite a bit of clutter in FB and that there > > still needs to be work done to it. I haven't had the privilege of > > using Geocities so I have nothing to compare it to. I think that the > > fact that Geocities didn't really take off "into mainstream" was > > because it wasn't its time. There's a reason for everything. > > > > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > Posted from the new ixda.org > > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33019 > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... 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