Looking to make a professional MySpace layout?
No problem. Let's get right to it.
First of all, wrap up everything you think you know about making a good-looking MySpace profile, smush it up into a little ball and chuck it out the window.
Yep, that's right.
Here's a newsflash-
Good web design is not comprised of:
- 500 MB of glitter graphics
- A page spread out 2000 pixels wide (making horizontal scrollbars)
- A high contrast background making text of any color difficult to read
- Gag-me-with-a-spoon color coordination
- Long blocks of text with no paragraphing
- Cheesy animated cursors
- Falling hearts effects (The marquee tag is so last century! C'mon people!)
Sooo... Did I leave anything out?
Okay let's quickly address some of these issues:
Keep It Simple Stupid
Just because everybody and their monkey's uncle loaded up their MySpace page with eight tons of falling hearts/spades/skulls, glitter graphics and flash videos from here to hell doesn't mean you have to follow suit. Surf around a bit on the web and ask yourself what ticks you off the most about some of the web pages you hit. That's right, it's all that blinking, animated crap that hurts the eyes and distracts you from your real purpose. Good web design does not depend on the cheap trickery of blink and glitter. Good web design is about keeping it simple, attractive and user-friendly.
Friends Don't Let Friends Spread the Page
Is your MySpace profile spread out six ways from Sunday creating those horizontal scrollbars at the bottom of your web browser? Well before you fire off an email to the MySpace resource site you got your layout from asking them what's wrong with the layout code, take a look at the graphics posted in your Comments section. Dollars-to-donuts, one of your friends --well meaning, of course-- posted an extra-wide graphic which is messing up your page. There are two simple solutions: Delete those comments and/or disable HTML in your Comments section [Account Settings >> Profile Settings (Change Settings) >> Click to clear 'Disable HTML Profile Comments']. Problem solved.
The Power of Paragraphs
If you're going to load up your About Me section with a loooooonnnngg unbroken block of text, forget about anybody actually reading what you so painstakingly took the time to write. Do everybody a favour (including yourself) and take the trouble to set the so golly-gosh-wonderful story of your life into paragraphs in order to make it a lot easier to read. To make paragraphs on MySpace all you have to do is add a wee bit of HTML. Simply type in an HTML paragraph tag whenever you wish to make a new paragraph. Works in any text box on your Edit Profile screen. Presto. Professionally formatted text on a MySpace profile (sheesh! What a concept!)...
Background Check
When you set about plowing through the truckloads of monstrosities on the net being touted as 'myspace layouts', keep in mind that the background image you select for your MySpace profile will have a huge effect on how legible your text is. Your best bet is to select a background image that contains mostly dark colors in order to support a light colored text or vice-versa. This way, visitors to your page won't go cross-eyed trying to read anything you've written.
A MySpace page is --after all is said and done-- simply a web page. By applying some simple and time-honored web design principles, you will already be light years ahead of everybody else when it comes to creating a professional MySpace layout.
It's that easy.
About the Author
Robert Darrell is the webmaster of ironspider.ca where he provides tutorials covering all aspects of web design. He also provides a fine collection of 100% original MySpace layouts (no copyright violations) and other MySpace resources which can be found here: http://www.ironspider.ca/adv/myspace/
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