Could it be because that which you perceive as a flaw is actually part of the whole point of friendfeed? The experience is not in the design of the site, it's in the content. The design plays a part, and from what we see of the dev team's various posts on ff and on the ff blog, a great deal of thought, effort and feedback goes into every aspect of the layout. This results in a clean, simple site which is easy to use and navigate, and where everything you need is within reach, one or two clicks away.
andrewbaron
· 12 months ago
It could be, though I think they tried that, and now it's time to try something else. I like the idea of what you are suggesting if you are considering the layout of an airplane cockpit or the position of a bed control in a hospital, but when it comes to your phone and your social networks, lets have a little pizzaz. Even Twitter allows you to change the background color, sheesh.
Chris Charabaruk
· 12 months ago
The problem with that is that the design of the site informs how people see the content. Were design so unimportant, most sites would likely still have that horrible, outdated look they had in the mid-90s. So it's important that FriendFeed have a design that makes it easier to follow the feeds.
While there's no doubt a lot of consideration by the FF team on how things are laid out, it's just as important, if not more so, to understand how users perceive the service, and ensure the site makes things easier on them. This is even more important if FF wants to attract more casual users and push for the mainstream, as Facebook has done so successfully.
slippylane
· 12 months ago
Yet we all still use google, which has the same design ethos as friendfeed :-)
Chris Charabaruk
· 12 months ago
What works for one type of website does not necessarily work for another. You're talking apples and oranges.
dl
· 12 months ago
AB I think your question.."why can't they do something themselves?" and the "enjoyment of the actual interaction" could not have said it better..but I still like FF and think it is much more useful than facebook for info...on specific issues that face the net tv merger especially.
Chris Charabaruk
· 12 months ago
I wonder too about the lack of third party applications for FriendFeed. An API is there, as well as FF provided feeds that would allow anyone to create a client for the site. But, so far, there hasn't seemed to be anyone seriously interested in creating such a client. Curious.
slippylane
· 12 months ago
I rest my case, lol
Chris Charabaruk
· 12 months ago
Uh... Perhaps the reason nobody has bothered so far is because business as usual on FriendFeed was with the likes of Scoble, Gray, et al. who haven't a problem with the site as is, personally. Twitter clients started showing up when people were getting annoyed with the limitations of Twitter.com, so it's possible that some FriendFeed apps are just around the corner.
All Comments
While there's no doubt a lot of consideration by the FF team on how things are laid out, it's just as important, if not more so, to understand how users perceive the service, and ensure the site makes things easier on them. This is even more important if FF wants to attract more casual users and push for the mainstream, as Facebook has done so successfully.
I think your question.."why can't they do something themselves?" and the "enjoyment of the actual interaction"
could not have said it better..but I still like FF and think it is much more useful than facebook for info...on specific issues that face the net tv merger especially.