After reading this article about the success of MySpace over its competitors, I was reminded of the discussions we have had internally concerning the development of our applications. Specifically the part about customization:

Compared with rivals', MySpace profiles are more customizable - hence the "my" in MySpace. Users can obtain Web programming code elsewhere to create their own layouts, change background colors or incorporate photos and video stored at other sites. (Friendster, already trailing MySpace in usage, added a similar feature last fall.)

"MySpace gives you more freedom to express yourself," said Zlatan Stankovic, 21, a sophomore at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. "You can leave different kinds of comments, pictures, movies, stuff like that."

Brad Greenspan, an early MySpace investor no longer affiliated with the site, said that after observing Friendster, "we just realized that to allow people more personalization and control would give people more attachment to their Web pages."

Now it is hard to deny that users enjoy customization and the opportunity to make something unique to them, but when does this unregulated customization start to harm the user experience you set out to create? When does the freedom given to User A become a problem for User B?

I'm sure we have all seen the evidence of what I am talking about on MySpace. You click on a link to someone's profile and are assaulted by a page with a florescent yellow background and blue text; or a media player that blasts your eardrums; or animated snowflakes that cover the screen; or an embedded applet that crashes your browser causing you to loose all your tabs and the articles you were about to read. You get the idea.

Where do we draw the line between the customization that the community desires, and the integrity of the brand and the user experience that we as designers and developers try to preserve?

An example of a compromise can be found in Basecamp and Backpack. These applications allow limited customization, such as color scheme editing, but prevent changes to the core structure. While I realize these apps have a slightly different demographic than MySpace, I still see requests by users to have access to the stylesheets for further customization. But again, this could compromise the integrity of the brand and user experience that 37signals has worked hard to create, so they decline.

In a more related space exists Consumating and Facebook. Both of these applications are similar to MySpace but deny the extreme levels of customization that MySpace affords. Instead these sites preserve a consistent user experience and allow customization of content rather than presentation.

There comes a time in application development when we have to choose between valuing user customization, or valuing in the overall user experience and brand. I tend to fall on the side of preserving user experience, but it is hard to deny the success of MySpace.

This line will continue to be a tightrope until someone finds the ultimate solution. We'll keep you updated if we happen to fall upon it.