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Face(book)lift
Can you imagine getting a facelift and then having virtually everyone in your world walk up to you and say things like, “I hate it!” and “WTF? You’re so ugly now!” Well that’s basically what’s going on in response to Facebook’s recent launch of its new design. The member feedback has been overwhelmingly negative. I’ll go one step further and say most members appear to be downright pissed off.
I think Facebook’s light switch approach to the change is what sent so many people off the deep end. I attribute this to the “Boiled Frog Effect” — the change was too much and too fast for most people. As a result there has been a tremendous backlash. I have to admit that my visceral response was not positive but the new design has grown on me over the last few days to the point where I am now a rabid fan.
If these upset peeps would look at a big part of Facebook’s motivation it might help them appreciate the reason for the change. According to Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the company wanted to take the stale ”Encyclopedia interface” that was just a laundry list of static info on people and bring it to life by presenting dynamic news and content about members and their friends. I think this is a brilliant idea since it’s the live aspect of Facebook that I love versus the same old content that never changes on someone’s profile. I mean how many times does someone want to be reminded that I went to Westwood High School. Ummmm…probably once and in some cases never.
Aside from the obvious layout changes, the two biggest changes that I think members will eventually fall in love with are to the Home Page/News Feed and Mini-Feed. Now, by providing such a robust, enhanced News Feed of what my friends are up to on my Home Page I don’t need to go “home page hopping” — from friend to friend — to try to keep track what’s new in their world. The News Feed is broken out by tabs — Top Stories, Status Updates, Photos & Posted Items” — which really streamlines the content nicely. And the change to the Mini-Feed is like going from black and white to color. The content is richer and the experience much more satisfying. The new Mini-Feed allows me to drill down on a friend and gives me a deeper, immersed experience of what they are up to at that moment in time.
I think Facebook did the right thing by throwing its membership in the pool all at once and expecting them to learn to swim. There are always a group of people that whine with change and then learn to adapt and love. These are the same people who whined when cable TV first launched because they couldn’t figure out how to operate the remote. For those pussies who absolutely can’t adapt to the new design and learn to do the dog paddle, they can grab a life preserver and click on the ”Back to the old Facebook” link in the upper right hand corner of the page. Wait I think I just called my 82-year-old aunt on the Cape a pussy. Sorry Penny! For the people who choose to go back to the old Facebook, I hope you look good in your perm, enjoy your eight-track tapes, have fun with your pet rock and don’t have any trouble finding your keys in your fanny pack.
And if you think your life just got complicated because of the change you should step into my shoes. As the Facebook support person for my family reunion group, I now have a dozen Italians calling me up and asking me to not only justify the changes (as if they were my decision), I need to walk them off the ledge by giving them step- by-step direction on how to find the “Back to old Facebook” link.
What do you think of Facebook’s new design?
August 8th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I like the way it looks, though it’s made some things harder to find - like my personal groups and pages.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Being a novice FB junkie I basically thought “I don’t know what the heck I just clicked on but I totally improved my FB layout - wish I had done it sooner.” It has cleaned up information and in my opinion has eliminated ‘the noise’. Can’t wait for the next round of improvements - there is so much more that can be done!
August 8th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Great topic, Kel. As someone who has been identified as a change-stubborn type by my peers, I’m one of those that doesn’t approach change without kicking the tires alot and asking ‘Why?’ from every possible angle.
For my life, that is a process of evolution that has to happen because the result is that I’m usually far more immersed than if I just went into the dark room because the door was open.
I’m sure the Facebook crew asked many questions going into this, and came up with some great reasons for individual changes and consolidations. As you mentioned, the streamlining aspects of some sections are better intended. But the end result looks as if they fell so in love with change for change’s sake that they let go of the bigger view, creating inconsistencies and cognitive dissonance in key areas - namely navigational cues and layout structure.
Each click seems to bring resized or relocated column, disappearing columns, or new interior tab styles. The top nav heirarchy has a link (Applications) that can’t even be clicked on. In a way, it feels like a highway crew consolidating four exits into one and then correcting the resulting traffic by removing the painted lines and adding more signage that says too much and doesn’t quite look like the existing signage.
While I don’t completely hate the new design and would probably get used to it if I had no other choice, I feel the FB crew missed one of the most important missions of good usability, summed up in the book by Steve Krug - “Don’t make me think”. One might perceive this as promoting disengagement, but it is really a method of influencing smart IA and design decisions by putting common sense first.
To quote architect Louis Sullivan “It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic…that form ever follows function.”
August 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am
mari, i agree with you. the one thing that is a buzz kill for me is that my blog listing is no longer on my home page. i think i can move stuff around, but i haven’t had the time to play with it yet. i also expect facebook to make some follow up changes after they begin to compile and sort through user whining…’er i mean feedback.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am
tara, i’m sure they would love to hear your positive perspective given all the negative responses they are enduring. i feel like it is crisper & cleaner. as a minimalist, that makes me happy!
August 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
rma913, i love the highway crew analogy. touche! the essence of your “don’t make me think” point is ridiculously important and often overlooked by a lot of these splinter social media sites that are popping up all over the place. sometimes less is more in navigation. i also love your “fell in love with change for change sake” comment. this is an epidemic across all businesses and usually driven by the personal agendas of those behind the scenes. i will be very interested to see what follow up changes are made after facebook compiles insight based on compiling direct feedback and indirect observation. as always, thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight.