If you have links to messaging, there should be an indicator how many messages are unread

I love MySpace.com because there’s a raw feel to it, and I think it hits it’s target audience with it’s usuability better than most people give it credit for. They’ve been going through a rolling refresh of a redesign for the past few months (some of which I know the people involved with it).

However, one of the changes where I think they missed some key usuability is the messaging links, and here’s a couple of improvements that might really help users.

Outlook has this great feature that shows you how many unread items you have paranthetically. That would be a great feature to add to this menu for the items that are active.

If there’s a vague item on your menu, explain it, especially if it’s a change to the user interface

Another change was adding notifications, which previously had filled the inbox. I had no idea what that was until I realized I should click on it. In the notifications box, there were over 200 comment approvals I had to read and either approve or deny, which took me a fair bit to go through.

What they could do as a quick fix is use the TITLE tag for the hyperlinks for more explanation of what each option is, so when the user hovers over it, you’d get a clear indication of what to do.