Justin Cox
Why the New Facebook Doesn’t Suck at All
Back in August I explained why the then new Facebook sucked. The layout was a horrible change for the sake of change. There were no functional improvements made nor did there seem to be any regard for quality design. That was then.
This week Facebook began rolling out another new layout to it’s various users and I finally joined the party yesterday. My initial reaction was a simple one, Facebook want’s to be Twitter. The new newsfeed looks eerily similar to Twitter’s simple design. Replace Facebook’s new “What’s on your mind?” with Twitter’s “What are you doing?” and you might not be able to tell them apart. This isn’t by any means a bad thing. Twitter’s design is simple and easy to follow, so copying it for Facebook’s purposes makes sense.
Facebook actually does Twitter one better by threading comments (Twitter would call them replies) inline. This connects conversations and makes stalking your friends — because that’s really what Facebook’s purpose is — much easier. What’s odd, though, is Facebook’s implementation of wall posts. Instead of having some sort of threaded conversation, like the comments, wall posts are indicated by a little triangle pointing at who the post was directed towards. Giving commented posts and wall posts vastly differing designs seems odd and they don’t seem to mesh well together. Perhaps over time that aspect of the design will flush out.
The other thing Facebook significantly changed in this round of redesigns is their sidebar. What used to be a massive hodgepodge of separated boxes containing all sorts of information is now a more streamlined version of itself. Why the first “story” in the list is larger than the rest seems a bit strange, but the rest of the layout is nice. You can quickly see what groups people are joining, notes they are writing, etc. Note the empty space between the first and second story is due to my ad-blocking script. Normally that space would be filled with some annoying add asking you whether you like it or not — as if any advertisements are liked. But I digress.
The final major change this time around isn’t really aesthetic, though it effects the aesthetics of the site. It’s the filters and the privacy options. Finally the Friend List feature comes in handy. Not only can Friend Lists be used to control what information certain groups of people are allowed to see on your profile, they can now be used to easily control what information you see on your news feed. Since clicking on these Friend List filters produces a hard url rather than a dynamic page, you can change your Facebook bookmark to one such filter to control what you see when visiting the site. It’s a great way to control what information you see. Granted, if you visit someone’s profile, or picture, or anything else on the site and then return to the homepage filters will be rest to the general News Feed one.
Another way to control what information you see in the feed are the little “x”
boxes that show up next to each post while the mouse hovers over them. This is a great new feature. Click the x and you’ll never see updates in the news feed from that person again. It’s a thing of beauty really. Gone are the odd sliders that didn’t seem to really effect the feed at all and, frankly, this is a much better option.
Last August Facebook redesigned for the sake of redesigning. This time around they actually redesigned for the sake of functionality. Based on Twitter comments and Facebook status people aren’t currently too fond of this new transition though perhaps it’s just the initial shock of the change. This update seems to be smartly implemented and, in a time when Facebook seemed to be getting a lot of bad press, this is actually a good move on their part.
Do you agree that the new Facebook doesn’t suck at all? Or do you feel like I’m completely coming out of left field? Let me know in the comments.
3/16/09
Brett Shegogue
I agree, I actually just wrote a similar post on my blog. Good observation with the “what’s on your mind” like twitter.
to Brett Shegogue
3/16/09
Ethan
I agree wholeheartedly. I’m sick of ppl complaining about new formats on Facebook. sure, it was great at first when it was just a simple social network. but things have changed, and Facebook needed to keep up. i think they kept up without selling out too much.
to Ethan
3/16/09
Peroksid
I totally disagree. The August redesign was hastened and had some strangely inconsistent design choices, but the basic functionality was not affected. This redesign completely revamps the front page and in my opinion makes it pretty much useless.
Main causes of my anger:
- no more “Live Feed” with all the info about your friends, now we just ger wall posts and status updates
- the highlights box serves no purpose… it’s a random collection of useless updates
- no quick overview of ONLY status updates
- the filtering system is pretty much useless… I can only turn on/off updates from a certain user and cannot select which info is relevant to me (the sliders in the previous version actually worked quite ok)
- larger fonts everywhere and a plethora of pictures actually make the site harder to read, not simpler
- finding events and birthdays is now a pain in the a**
- this is a personal preference… but “What’s on your mind?” Come on! What was on the designers mind?!? And it’s even sillier in the Slovenian translation…
Well… if I wanted a Twitter-like Facebook, I’d use Twitter. About 10 of my contacts (out of 400) already closed their accounts since the redesign and I’m thinking of doing the same.
to Peroksid
3/16/09
Brian R
I don’t like the new facebook at all. I feel more out of touch with my friends. Frankly if they don’t change it back or fix it it’s likely I will stop using facebook very much because I just find the site too annoying to use. This isn’t an emo internet threat; it’s just a fact. If I find something annoying to use I’m less likely to use it.
Bottom line – It sucks.
to Brian R
3/17/09
Justin
@Peroksid and @Brian R – If you think closing your account is an acceptable way to fight the change, then I guess go for it. Though, you have to know that in anything change is going to happen and you’re either going to like it or not. I didn’t like the August ‘08 change but think this one is pretty good. But in August I wasn’t inclined to close my account over the change. It’s a process and it’s something you and I have no control over. We just have to deal with it.
to Justin
3/17/09
Gerhard
Left field, definitely.
It just isn’t facebook any more. Twitterbookster has no distinguishing features anymore. The new stream of unconsciousness is a mishmash of messages / updates / links put through a blender to make them all look equally bland, the simplified filters are useless (the one thing I want to filter are the plethora of oversized application messages – good luck with that!), and I still haven’t found a simple ‘highlight’ that deserved that name.
I didn’t particularly like the ‘new’ facebook layout with its standardized look, but at least it remained functional. This new-new thingy doesn’t even do that. It is truly awful!
to Gerhard
3/19/09
Ethan
you all are reading way too much into it.
if you seriously can’t figure it out, then just stick with Twitter.
to Ethan