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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
myYearbook Crowdsources Site Makeover  firestorm of dissatisfaction. When Facebook tweaks its profile pages just a smidge, it can be enough to prompt headline coverage among the tech trades and blogosphere. The more successful a site has become with users, the higher the stakes in a redesign. After all, the best digital destinations should feel like tools, and you don’t go redesigning a hammer that someone is already swinging a certain way. And so when popular student network myYearbook knew that it had to redesign its site to accommodate the new features it had launched in recent years, the company turned to the audience that had to use it. In other words, the new myYearbook design was crowdsourced. Users were invited to submit new design and navigation concepts that were then voted upon by the larger community. The top 20 concepts were given prizes of $1 million each in the virtual currency (“Lunch Money”) that myYearbook uses for its pay-to-play games and person-to-person gifting products. One of the major startup success stories of recent years, myYearbook has assembled 20 million members. The site has social games, personal profiles, video aggregation and chat rooms as well as widget-like applications similar to Facebook. The accumulation of new features has resulted in a cluttered look. Not surprisingly, users seemed to favor a redo that makes myYearbook look much like fellow social network Facebook. The live stream of user updates (“Chatter”) dominates the main page, and profile pictures, friends and application lists occupy the left rail. A key addition to the new design was keeping access to a user’s friend network, messages and Lunch Money balance always visible wherever you are on the site. If the “new” myYearbook looks a lot like the same old Facebook, at least it has the distinct advantage of having been preapproved by the audience. According to the site, thousands of people voted on hundreds of submissions, and the final design was preferred overwhelmingly over the old design. As we reported in min last year, myYearbook claims to be a profitable venture fueled mainly by a paid content model based on virtual currency purchases. The myYearbook crew produced a video outlining the new site features. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
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