brightkite - first 2 minutes

• Sign up flow is fairly smooth
• Visual language is clean - very web 2.0
• Visual design doesn’t support any hierarchy - no idea what I am supposed to do
• The UI doesn’t really explain what the product is for
• Lots of overlap in terminology causing confustion (placemarks, visited place) Most of the terminology is also new so it must be learned

Bottom line - this product will live and die by UGC and currently the UI is not set up to make that happen. Gathering UGC is an art.