MegaSite Mania

For a website that has more than 850,000 members, ‘43 things’ has a very basic outline and layout. This basic design is one of the prime reasons that the website is so charming. Right from the minute you log onto 43 things, you know that you are at a user friendly place and you can find your way around here. Never at one point of time do you feel that you are in a maze looking for feelers and hints to move about.

Home Page
When you log in to the home page of 43 things, you will be greeted by a message which shows you how many people are registered on the website currently. The number is well over an amazing 850 thousand now. This has happened within a year of the site being launched. You need to register on the website before you can post your own list 43 things that you would like to do. Once you register, you can add your own list of 43 things that you would like to do in your life. It will also display the number of people who share your passion. For example, there are more than 6500 people who like to learn to play a guitar.

Finding Other People’s Goals
A simple search is all it takes to find a list of people who share a similar goal. For example if you search for the term ‘moon’, it gives you a list of people who have something to do with the moon in their goals. While most of them are about being on the moon and walking on the moon, there are some absurd ones like ‘blowing up the moon’ and ‘fly to the moon’ as well. When you click on the goal that matches your goal the most, you will be taken to the home page of that particular goal. It has a button on the left which says, ‘I want to do that’. Once you click on this, the goal is automatically added to your list of 43 things.

Goal Accomplished Or Quit Midway
Once you select a particular goal, you can write entries to manage your progress. There are separate buttons however for goal accomplished and quitting midway. These buttons are ‘I have done that’ and ‘I give up’. When you click on ‘I give up’, you can once again write a blog entry on why you are giving up the goal. On the other hand, if you have achieved it, it asks you your opinion on whether the goal is worth it or not. What is evident from this whole approach is that the user is in control all the time on the website.