After logging in, the user has an online profile that is customizable in a way similar to other sites. It displays your name, age, location, a photo, and a personal website. It displays how long the user has been a member, which seems to engage the user. There is a sense of loyalty in the site almost, and this is also displayed by the user's number of plays. It shows statistics related to the use of the software, including number of playlists and "loved tracks."
Below these basic statistics is when the profile becomes more personalized. This isn't in the sense of a user's direct input into the website like age and location, but rather Last.fm is more directed towards the user's daily music listening, without them directly imputing information. It is as if a camera was directly following an individual, recording all of their behavior they may not be inherently aware of. An individual may have no idea that they had listened to Britney Spears 566 times since 2005, but Last.fm records this information. The website helps the user view their muscial preferences in an inactive sense. They don't directly have to tell the program who they listen to the most, because the Last.fm software does it for them.
This design of the program allows the user to participate in a larger music conversation. The relationship between the visual design of the profile and the site's function interact with each other. The layout is simple, yet broken down. It does not require alot of input on the user's end in how the profile looks, but rather, remains clean and distinct. This visual aspect of the site reflects the site overall. Last.fm is not looking for the user to directly design their profile, but rather, allow Last.fm a look into the user's preferences and create a design based on that.
Unlike Myspace, users cannot customize every detail of the visual appeal of their profile. All they have control over is content, and solely in the least active of ways.
A bit repetitive here, about how the site remembers certain things. (Does your profile say whether you've been listening to Britney? Do you have a choice in this? Is there a difference b/w what you see and what other people see about you?)
ReplyDeleteI get lost in the 3rd paragraph about the design similarities, again because there's a certain lack of concrete detail about how the two are similar. I even lose mys sense of focus because it seems to address the "design of the program" as a whole, instead of what particular contributions are made by the profile and its possibilities.
You come back around at the end, but so what if the control over the profile is less active? If there's no control over it as a "writer," then what does it bring to the party? Is it more a resource for others to use? What rhetorical choices DO you get to make?