

Ask HN: Thoughts on the new FB layout? - nav


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anon-e-moose
Hate it. I was always annoyed when I had to switch from Top News to Most
Recent, and now I don't have a choice. The addition of random visual
embellishments like blue corners and 3d borders takes away from readability
and scan-ability.

Also I can't imagine why I would want a side feed of people commenting on
people who I'm not even friend's with photos. This violates peoples
expectations of Facebook.

So good job guys, you broke your core product. This is just what you need to
defeat Twitter and Google Plus.

Edit: I just noticed they stapled the real time feed to the buddy list,
halving it. So now I can see even less of the buddy list (the one they broke
last month) at once.

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mbrzuzy
For the longest time I didn't realize that there was a Top News and a Most
Recent news. When I discovered it, facebook became a lot more useful to me.

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ericmsimons
Initially, I'm always opposed to changes on FB, but it usually grows on me
after a while. I didn't like how they released a slew of updates all at once
tonight; I think in the future they should gradually roll out big changes like
these.

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codyguy
New layout? Didn't notice it because I haven't logged in for more than a year
and not missing it at all.

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high5ths
Their layout gets busier and busier with each iteration. I can't claim to love
all of it, although some of the changes might make reading easier -- like the
thin horizontal lines between comments, or larger in-line image previews.

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Thomaschaaf
Would you guys mind uploading a couple screenshots? I don't have the new
design.

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sandipagr
I like the look and feel of most of the changes but I really wish they didn't
have fixed width layout for all screen sizes.

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abbasmehdi
Facebook has lost me. I need something clean and simple. That it's not.

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Tangaroa
I stopped using Facebook a week or two ago when they started putting an opaque
overlay over the entire page to direct my attention to a popup box that said
nothing interesting and had no apparent way of closing it, no [X] in the
corner. If that's a feature of the new layout, I already hate it even though I
haven't been able to see the new layout.

A hint to UI developers: if your proposed user interface feature resembles
something that porn sites did in the 1990s which users found so obnoxious that
browser developers rewrote their products to disallow it, because disabling
your feature would gain the browser many additional users, don't do it.

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nbm
That doesn't sound like anything I've ever seen on Facebook (and, since I work
there, I use it a lot). Were you doing anything specific when this happened?
Do you have any other information so I can pass it on to the right people?

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Tangaroa
It happened immediately after logging on, when looking at the news feed. I was
able to see the page for a split second while it first rendered and then some
JS covered everything up with mostly-opaque white. I think the popup box was
pointing to the update status input box, but I forget what it said.

I just logged in and did not get it, so it seems to be gone now.

~~~
nbm
This sounds like it might have been a bug rather than something on purpose.
When we introduce something new, we use overlays to help users discover these
new features. For example, how to change the privacy of their posts, to tag
people, or check into a new location. I'm fairly certain we don't use modal
dialogs for these (only for the lightbox for photo viewing).

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millzlane
I can confirm this it was the reason I closed my account. I hated that it
wouldn't let me close this new feature tour or whatever.

There was an overlay and would not let you continue without completing it. It
was no bug. I think it's great that Facebook is becoming more reactive now
that google+ is around. I've been requesting some of these features since the
beginning. I wish they had come sooner.

