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.”