Detailed Page Analysis of MySpace

• Graphical & Functional Elements
• The webpage has about 70% of its “real estate” containing content which is specific to the page; most of the page is covered with a large box which contains the legal agreement that the page is designed to present to Myspace users. Only a maximum of 5% of the pages space is allocated to content which you may see on other pages, this is the top part of the page which has the Myspace logo and title for the page, so it could also be said that this 5% contains the non-functional element of the page as well. The other 25% of the page is taken by whitespace and the backing of the page which is just a simple grey area, making the content stand out of the page. The page also can be said to have over-chunked their information as it is a long solid piece of text, which although has paragraphs, it does not read very easily and is not particularly user friendly. Although this is common place when reading legal disclaimers both online and in offline programs, it is information that has to be there but does not have to be displayed in a particularly user friendly manner. The page is fit for its purpose of providing the sites users with the contract which they are agreeing to when using the website.
• Length
• When the webpage is first opened it only displays about 10% of the whole page in length, as this is a legal document it is a long page, as they need to make sure all legal information/contractual information is available.
• Printable Page
• This is Myspace’s Terms and Conditions page, outlining the contract between users of Myspace.com.
• Home Page
• This is a user homepage, when a user logs into Myspace this page is displayed to them which shows them different aspects of their own Myspace account as well as different advertisements. 25% of the page is visible when you first open it up, however most of the information you need from it is in this 25% of the page.
• Music User Page
• This is a myspace music homepage, similar to the user homepage it shows different aspects that the user has added and also advertisements as normal on all myspace pages.
• About 85% of the screen is taken up by user content, with transparency set so that the branded background of the music user can be seen. Only about 10% of the webpage is actually shown when the page is opened due to a large amount of content. As before the webpage has about 20% being allocated for non-functional content, and roughly another 20% allocated for the Myspace Header and footer parts of the page which are static parts of Myspace that are common on Myspace pages. As this website is a music/club page it has a lot of relevant information about the club it is chunked into smaller parts which take the form of tour dates, pictures, information and such like. Most of the websites “real estate” is taken up by the content or advertisement for the user, however there is the same amount of space allocated for myspace non-functional and functional content.
• Search Page
• This search page has 3 facilities, you can search for users, your classmates, or you can search for people with the same interests and such for friend networking purposes. About 60% of the page is visible when you open the page, with a small scroll to get to the remaing 40% of the page.
• Content which is specific to the page makes up about 50% of the page. This is split into 3 parts each roughly the same size, which provide the 3 different search types. There is 30% of the webpage is taken up by the content which is common to other pages, and non-functional content; the links to other parts of the website and advertisements at the header and footer of the page. The pages information is chunked into the three afore mentioned parts, the different search facilities, each chunk is contained within its own box, keeping each part separate for the user to use accordingly. The remaining 20% of the webpage is taken up by white space/blank space.
• Forum Page
• This Forum page contains a list of different forums which have the relevant titles for users to click on depending on their preference. About 60% of the website is taken up by the active user content; the remaining 40% is split between white space, details common to all of the myspace pages, and non-functional content, advertisements. The page doesn’t have a lot of white space, only about 10%, 20% makes up content which is common to myspace, with the remaining 10% catering for advertisement. The information on the page is not particularly chunked, as it is made up of folders with their name and a small description, these could be said to be chunks, the only other part of the website which is chunked is the non-functional content, the advertisements and links.

MySpace Page Structures