Usability of Social Networking Sites

While people rave all over the world about social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, the technicalities of their site designs are far from ideal. Although changes to personal profiles can easily be made at the click of a button, the simplicity is not always practical.

Because many members of MySpace and Facebook have no prior knowledge of HTML coding, most of the sites do not meet the coding standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Why does that matter? Code that is not formatted correctly can cause major problems for internet users with disabilities who may need to use a screen reader or other type of device to access the internet. This means that for visually impaired users or even deaf users, the software used to access these pages may seriously malfunction and not be able to decipher anything that is on the page.

Also, since anyone can change the color of their page, sound effects of their page, or a number of other things at any time, other technical problems are created since the majority of the users are not skilled web designers. Since the coding is not always done correctly, when inexperienced users add files that are too large for the page’s unadjusted capacity, it can cause the browser along with any other programs that may be running to freeze. Pictures, animated graphics, and music are just a few of the files that cause the most problems when the file is too large for the page to handle without proper coding. Songs and other audio files are often programmed to play automatically upon the opening of a site not giving the page time to load properly. According to PC World, this is the main reason for MySpace receiving its number one listing in the twenty five worst websites ever. PC World also states that the bandwidth used on MySpace is too large for the type of coding that they have and has the potential to slow down servers for many users.

Also due to poor coding, Myspace has become a “hotbed” for spy ware according to MSNBC news. Because of the lack of coding approved as safe by the W3C, hackers can log into other users’ profiles with virtually no effort at all. Of course, this leads to a number of problems including personal identity being stolen, passwords being obtained, and private information ultimately getting into the wrong hands. Because the information is so easy to add and send, users do it without thinking. They assume that a site with such a large name and reputation would be safe. However, many profile owners are learning the hard way that other people have more access to their personal information than they think.

The purpose of this article is not to give social networking sites a bad name. They are certainly a wonderful idea and can be very useful networking tools when used correctly. However, for the positives to outweigh the negatives, some crucial changes must be made in order to ensure their ease of use and security for everyone.