Is it inevitable that all good things must come to an end? That one day you are at the top of your graph, and the next you are on an irreversible downward slope, that it is almost predestined that you will be usurped by the rising up and comer? Maybe that is the cynics way of looking at things, but I still like to believe there is a method to the traffic graph madness. There must be a pretty good reason or two why Mapquest failed at the same time Google Maps succeeded.
In a fabulous article, John McKinley of Silicon Valley Insider asked if Maquest is A Symbol of Everything That’s Gone Wrong in user experience design. (Thanks to David Feldt for the link) He clearly lays out a few good reasons for the traffic flip-flop, but the big insight was this:

“At some point along the journey, it has lost its way, in terms of the primary mission it is meant to serve. It is all about simple, informative directions.”

Sandy Marsh, one of our resident evangelists of XA done right, suggests following this mantra when designing applications:

“Make each application do it’s ONE THING very well – everything else is secondary.”

In an age of social noise and application excess, I can think of a few other internet properties that should heed that advice…
Marta Strickland