The biggest problem with my friendfeed account is that the interface is so raw, it’s actually just a wireframe with no “design” at all. No design is design to a point. On the other hand, design is what adds “experience” to a platform, or any situation for that matter. Why is the iPhone so great when it delivers the same info as the Blackberry? Because the experience of the iPhone is way more awesome, by design. The extra design, beyond the functionality is worth everything. The interaction with data can become a pleasure.
Friendfeed sucks on this. It’s so raw, people are having a hard time understanding how to use it and it’s not a very comfortable place to be. It’s difficult to be on FF as it takes a lot of work to get to the info you want. I have been touting FF for over a year, but my Facebook account is slowly replacing the value of FF for me.
Last year, I simply assumed that the plan for FF was to rely on 3rd parties to develop interface apps, like Twitter had done. Considering most people interact with Twitter without ever going to the Twitter website, it seemed like an opportunist would create a great 3rd party application that would nail the design aspect. But that’s not happening so why can’t Friendfeed do something about this themselves?
