By maptheway on

I set up a test blog to research their approach. For the most part, I was completely blown away. From a user perspective it is really intuitive. The start-up and layout was easy to follow and I was done in no time. Their server kept timing out as I was doing this so it's not flawless.

I have not experienced a better interface to set-up a new 'free' blog (The non-tech savvy crowd will eat this up). This blog still has a very long way to go, but well worth taking some serious notes to follow their structure for ease of use with an eye toward non-technical users who will set up their own blogs and then upload photos... in a matter of minutes.

This is a great model to look over and take notes. Comments?

Comments

micha_1977’s picture

micha_1977 commented

they moved to wordpress and from user view wordpress is ready to go (publish)

im waiting for drupal 4.6, with some nice use cases it would be easy to make drupal ready to go(publish)

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

If you were to give notes, ideally with screenshots, this would be even better. I can't comment unless I, too, go out and try it, which I don't have time for.

And do you mean this as feedback for new user registration on a Drupal site? Or for a new Drupal install?

How is it different from "regular" TypePad setup?

maptheway’s picture

maptheway commented

Boris,
My comments were based entirely on the intuitive nature for a Friendster user who is setting up a personal blog within Friendster. Once the blog is set up a "Blog" tab appears inside your friendster profile. My feedback here should be relevant to you for new user registration and setup/user admin for a drupal site. I was not referencing how to install Drupal on a server since friendster's new blog feature does NOT require you to do any server config.

I've not set up a 'regular' TypePad blog so I can't compare. Not sure if Friendster simplified/streamlined their 'customized' typepad blog.

As far as 'concrete' feedback, much of what I point out is based upon the feeling, the intuitive nature of this design. It simply makes sense. It makes much more sense to simply set up a blog inside your friendster profile to see what I'm talking about. This is VERY subjective, I realize, but again well worth it to see how a VERY LARGE corporation has done it (probably with ten's of thousands of dollars in design layout and research). I hope this helps clarify some points. Thanks for asking!

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

If you really want to help, walk through the registration process and *document it* for us -- with screenshots, your comments on what you think "feels" good, and so on. Then we can have a discussion about how this might be applied to a new user signing up for a Drupal site (obviously, one in which blogs are enabled).

Hope that is clearer what I was looking for. As I said, everyone going and "trying it themselves" is not as useful as a focused discussion around what is being done right, and someone has to take the initiative and document it.

shane birley’s picture

shane birley commented

One needs to remember the registration process for Drupal is really up to the person who installs and configures the site. Drupal is a tool which does have some simple "basic" ways to do particular functions (like creation of user accounts and setting up blogs) but they are open to changes. And by "simple" I mean a non-configured, out-of-the-box solution.

For example, between Drupal and Friendster, the registration process "out of the box" for Drupal is a name and an e-mail address. That's it. BUT, that can be changed and the same information requested much like Friendster. Friendster just has all of the questions displayed for people to fill in. Well, I can change the profile configuration and add all kinds of questions that people should fill in before opening their account.

As for the blogs, the blog setup in Drupal is already there. If the site has a blog module turned on, the "blog entry" is right there for the user to use. Friendster allows for people to set it up, but I will go through the process and document (with screeny-shots) how it all works.

Now, what I think really the issue is for this thread, is that there are templates that can be used, etc, for blogs in Typepad that Drupal doesn't allow for. Now, this is a challenge but I am sure with a little elbow grease, there is a simple way to do it. Now, also, one needs to remember Drupal does a whole lot more than Typepad. Typepad is strictly designed for one process and Drupal is designed for a million other things that Typepad can't do.

This doesn't make either product more superior, it just means they were designed for different purposes and happen to each have a "blog" option. The blogs work the same, but the "blogs" in Drupal don't have all the fancy looks.

Anyway, that is just my two cents as I think Friendster and Drupal have very different ideas about how things are done but, really, they come out with the same result.

I am going to head off and make some blog screen shots for my Friendster account. I will post it on www.vbcreative.com this weekend. Unless anyone thinks that it isn't necessary.

--
Shane Birley
Vicious Bunny Creative
http://www.vbcreative.com

---
Shane Birley
Left Right Minds
https://www.leftrightminds.com

boris mann’s picture

boris mann commented

Screenshots which we can comment on are a great start.

maptheway’s picture

maptheway commented

Their documentation is interesting and should answer some questions:
The simplicity of the documentation also reflects well layed out usability design.

The User Manual http://help.blogs.friendster.com/ is designed to help new members learn how to get started with Friendster Blogs and to help experienced users get the most from the Friendster Blogs system.

We've organized the documentation into a few key areas, each corresponding to the main tabs in Friendster Blogs. Read about:

* Your Blogs http://help.blogs.friendster.com/weblogs/
* Your Photo Albums http://help.blogs.friendster.com/albums/
* Your TypeLists http://help.blogs.friendster.com/typelists/
* Your Control Panel http://help.blogs.friendster.com/panel/

I would like to think this thread is really all about Usability Design.

jasonwhat’s picture

jasonwhat commented

1. Simpler and integrated image and html tags support
2. Let users name their blog during registration or auto name it the same ast their username, i.e. www.example.com/username
3. My blog bookmarklet so users can quickpost from anywhere.Help get Tsunami survivors back to school