Recently, I received an invitation to join John’s network on TimeBridge, a social media site allowing groups of people to share schedules and availability. TimeBridge may be a good solution, but my relatively short experience was pretty bad.

The main page after logging in is horrible. Just about everything on the page is about the site, including links to three “how to use the site” videos, a “create your personalized link” call to action, a button that you can add to your browser’s links toolbar, and the RSS feed to the TimeBridge blog. The main page for my account should not talk about using the site. It should be the site.

My philosophy about communication (and marketing) is that we communicate through three paths: content, context and behavior.

In the realm of the web, a site’s copy, pictures, PDFs, and other information is the content. The design is the context, since it gives the content a visual feel. The site’s functionality is it’s behavior. These three paths certainly have some overlap, but the message for all of these must be consistent.

The TimeBridge site does a good job with content and context. The information is good, the service looks good, the site is personal and comfortable. The behavior is where the site falls apart.

Functional areas are terribly out-of-whack in terms of page real estate. Trivial features, such as current account settings, take up sizable areas of the page, while important features are buried. For example, to view the people in your network, you have to click on the tiny and out of the way “My Availability” link on the top navigation.

What does all of this communicate? To me, it says that TimeBridge feels like their site is more important than you or your network.

When complaining about problems like this, I eventually start asking the tough questions. Have I made these same mistakes? Am I creating sites in a way that connects with the user? Am I actually connecting with the user, or am I thinking like a programmer?

Tags: communication, social media mistakes, TimeBridge, user interface

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 2:32 pm and is filed under marketing, networking, social marketing, social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.