Recently I upgraded my myspace profile to the new designs, and was impressed with both the process and the end result.
Having been on myspace for nearly 5 years, I have seen it through many of the iterations of helping users with profile design for the less CSS-advanced like myself, and definitely feel the latest release was the smoothest yet.
The real-time customisation editor remains again, and allows you to choose your theme (basically the colours and/or background image) with not a HEX colour code chart in sight. However, I could have uploaded my own background and chosen a style, similar to Twitter’s customisation tool. Having chosen my theme, it was time to choose the layout where I opted for a two column design to house what I wanted to share with the world. Interestingly, you are also given the option to add a ‘marquee’ – basically a header image – a handy option for bands and artists.
The last part of the three-stage process is to choose the modules you want displayed on your profile and where, via drag-and-drop functionality – neat. Here you can add a whole host of content , but I opted to show my status (sync’d with Twitter), stream, music player, interests, friends, details & companies. I also added a custom HTML box to highlight the other networks I am on ad where to find me, but could be used for widgets, youtube videos, contact box or whatever you see fit (long as it doesn’t contain javascript which is blocked by the platform) – a really powerful module.
Then simply hit publish and its live.
Another big change to the architecture of profiles is the side navigation keeping visitors on your profile as they browse photos, playlists, videos, blogs and friends. And your profile design is carried over to each of these pages, instead of being taken off to a page deep in the photos area for example. It also provides standardisation to the site, allowing visitors to easily navigate from profile to profile. Also, all my content sits off my profile URL, which is great for improving the SEO to my profile and making me easier to find.
So it seems the hours of fun spent tweaking your myspace whilst learning HTML will become a thing of the past, as the site has become easier to use as a publisher and visitor.