Thought Chasm

a random selection of events, observations, ideas or happenings

your thoughts: FB overhaul

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

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That’s right. I’m trying something different. I’m asking you for your thoughts instead of dousing you with mine. Take a quick second and leave your short answers below or @- me on Twitter.

What do you think of the new look of Facebook? Please provide your reasons for feeling as you do and be as brief or verbose as you see fit. (Who has that kind of time, though, right?)

Note: I’ll be relaying my feelings later this week. Also, for those replying via twt, I’ll copy your comments into this post for review later.

@katlikewrites: It’s bogus. As a first-generation FB user (summer 04). However, my mom did call me last night ranting about needing a FB tutorial.

Tags: facebook, social media, twitter, your thoughts

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under media, random schtuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “your thoughts: FB overhaul”

Ben Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

I like “What’s on your mind?” but I don’t think it makes sense as the Facebook status prompt—Twitter should move to something similar right away.

The overall layout is fine and the real-time-ness behind it is solid. The actual execution is underwhelming. Their hierarchy sucks—nothing stands out and everything in the far-right column looks like a crappy ad. The previous iteration of the News Feed did a better job of differentiating between the types of stories it presented. Maybe this is all intentional and they believe everything should have the same weight (that would be stupid). I think it’s probably more likely that this is just the latest example of their struggles with navigation and information design. They’ve never figured out how to use their colors and all their whitespace, both of which have the potential to be kickass.

I haven’t really screwed around with the filters yet but I wish there was a way to feature story types (especially in the “Highlights”) I care about more—a la the sliders from the previous version. I would love to see a half-size/collapsed view cribbed from the Gawker story and comment systems.

And speaking of those filter tabs on the left: Some mighty strange apps are showing up for me, ones that I don’t use, like “Which mighty woman of the Bible are you most like?”
alauna Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

i love the rounded corners, but of course they stole that idea from me.

i don’t do twitter and i don’t really care about that many real time updates from people…and even if i did it all looks the same. i use the “status” often enough, but updating 3-4x a day? wtf who cares what you’re doing!? (this might not be “new facebook” related, i realize.) i agree with the above – the right and left columns look like ads. i don’t use them to sort and i don’t click or even read there ever.

i liked when my status was bold/different from wall posts. i don’t see why i need to know on my page, your page, the home page, etc. what is going on, who is chatting/pointing at whom, and so on.

in my very basic opinion, i don’t like it because i don’t see what benefits they are providing by changing things up again. but i won’t be signing any petitions or creating a bring back the old old facebook group anytime soon :)
TinkTrace Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

i don’t like change…never did. i said i hated it the last time zuckerberg changed things up and learned to like it (or at least accept hope and change…err i mean change…yeah just change). I’m sure i’ll do the same this time around. What I really don’t like is that it says “What ‘s on your mind?” front and center when I log in. No one cares what’s on my mind, I don’t care what’s on your mind that’s for damn sure. It only encourages more ridiculous status updates. argh.
Ben Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

I’m hoping people will start to move past the cheese sandwich (as in: “im eating a cheese sandwch”) use of the status update as it becomes a more familiar medium. I’ve already noticed this happening on Twitter—though it could just be Twitter’s more web-savvy user base looking for a different experience (especially since that’s mainly who I follow there).

The Twitter community is getting a lot better at sharing things—ideas, links, wacky happenings—that everyone else will actually be interested in and converse about (which is sort of the point) and moving away from straight lifecasting. Facebook is inherently more intimate so it may never make the full transition but even a small shift will show off the new look’s potential.

Anyway, this is another reason I think a better filter would be useful. There’s a select group of people from whom I wouldn’t mind receiving every minute detail, a group from whom I’d like to receive less detail and people I don’t want to hear about at all. I really need to play around with the friend grouping options to see if this is possible.
Ben Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

And there you have the most in-depth online punditry I’ve ever let fly. Next thing you know, I’ll be hammering out “FIRST!!!!!!”s and using phrases like “…more like Land of 10,000% Tax Increases!”
jenski Says:
March 18th, 2009 at 10:30 pm

they just keep giving me more reasons not to go on there. the site has too many filters, too many options. it’s way too busy for me. i feel like i’m pretty tech savvy – i can’t imagine how the old folks are managing.

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