

Facebook gets redesigned - wyldstallyn26
http://www.facebook.com/?redesign

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jfruh
I hate to be one of those people constantly whinging about Facebook redesigns,
but ... can someone explain why Facebook seems to intent on "curating" your
stream for you, based on priorities that aren't clear? I know a lot of people
probably enjoy having some definition of "highlights" stuck at top, but many
of us like going through the whole thing to see what all our friends are up
to, until you get to a status update you recognize, which means that you know
you're done looking. What does FB lose by taking away the ability to see a
simple chronological list of updates? What do they gain by foregrounding the
posts that they think are important?

Edited to add: Several people replied to me saying "But some of us DON'T want
to see a big chronological list!" Well, yeah, I said in my original post that
I realized this. And in fact you already had the option to see only "Top news"
instead of "All posts." What bugs me is the one-size-fits-all version that has
now been imposed on everybody. Why is FB allergic to allowing different users
to interact with their data in the way those users want?

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gfodor
Because 'going through the whole thing' is nearly impossible for some people,
who either log on spargingly or have a lot of friends. Additionally, since
Facebook is full of relationships that are less than actual 'friends', a lot
of people have complained for years about the quality of the posts. I think
they must have realized their algorithms needed a stronger signal than what
they had, and this UI is a way to get that data.

~~~
jfruh
But this option already existed (you could choose "top stories" instead of
"latest stories"). What annoys me is imposing a one-size-fits-all version on
everybody.

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yuvadam
As opposed to previous minor redesigns, this time Facebook has complete lost
it.

Basically what you're missing out on is "subscribing" to non-friends a-la-
Twitter, horrible page layouts, numerous bugs, and way too many options and
configurations.

No Facebook, I do not want to manage my friends as if this is some kind of war
room. Stop it.

And someone please let Zuck know that we're not in 1999 anymore. Floating
frames and detached sidebars are a UX abomination.

Facebook is panicking and shooting in every direction.

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rhizome
I don't think so. I think they're backgrounding (side-bar'ing) random friend
activity and designating the center stream for capital-c Content.
Subscriptions, active threads, messaging from Like'd entities...the center box
is commerce-oriented, the sidebar is for communications and for contributing
to entities (comments, photos, statuses, etc.) defined as candidates for the
center stream.

I believe that the center stream will be where the half-page forced-Chevrolet
ad is going to go, the changes of late all point in this direction. Think:
monetization and profit.

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tmcneal
Along those same lines, I'd bet that the floating section was added to get
more eyeballs looking on the right side of the screen where the ads are.

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rhizome
I'd say that along those lines, one aspect of the purpose of the sections is
that the center is long-form attention and the right sidebar is short-form
"constant check" attention.

And just to put the button on it: I fully believe that FB is _at least_ this
cynical when it comes to the design of the page.

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ethank
I hate to jump on a hater bandwagon, because I genuinely am a proponent of
innovation, but: really?

I think part of the usage of a web product should be to put you in a state of
ease and enjoyment, not anxiety. The new FB puts me in an anxious state. I
feel I'm always on the verge of missing something.

Twitter I feel has balanced the checking-in anxiety issue with a compelling
product experience, and I always felt that Facebook allowed me to maneuver
through the information flow at a pace I wanted.

Now, I'm presented with a realtime feed and a curated feed within the same
context. I just get an anxious feeling looking at it.

I think the technology is amazing behind it. To be able to do realtime
information flow and processing on this scale is astounding. But I think
product developers need to focus not only one the technology that drives the
user experience, but the emotion they are trying to instill on the users.

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ethank
I retract my views in light of Timeline.

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wyldstallyn26
For those who are not lucky enough (ha!) to enjoy the new design, here's a
small glimpse:
[https://img.skitch.com/20110921-rfae5d2pera2ig7ugbupd4pf61.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20110921-rfae5d2pera2ig7ugbupd4pf61.jpg)

It is mind-jarringly chaotic on my Home screen. Not wise.

~~~
laconian
Oh my. My eyes don't know where to go.

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fsniper
These new changes have made Facebook an unbearable platform for application
developers. Firing ajax requests in a constant and fast pace is making the
platform unmanageable. Combined with buggy and incomplete apis debugging and
managing canvas apps are nearly impossible. I really hate building
applications for the platform now.

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danpker
I've had this for a couple of weeks (weirdly). You never get used to it and
you always feel like you're missing something.

Even more annoying is the little status updates in the top right, above the
sidebar showing everyone of your friends recent activity (which I really
liked) seems to have gone now.

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chadgeidel
Yes, and the changes have pretty much ruined the iOS app's "news" display.

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WalterSear
Facebook users, your Homer Car™ is ready for you.

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n9com
It feels like signing into AOL back in 1998!

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wccrawford
They took away the ability to show all events in chronological order? Ugh. I
was trying to stay away from G+ for ethical reasons, but this... This might
just drive me back.

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vasco
I'm very curious about the differences you think exist between the two
services regarding ethics.

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wccrawford
It's the whole Real Name debacle. It's been debated to death, though.

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dfxm12
Facebook actually has the same policy.

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wccrawford
Again, when Facebook bans someone, it doesn't destroy the rest of their online
identity. And before you quote Google's policy on it, best do a search on the
web for how it was actually handled.

~~~
dfxm12
My comment isn't defending Google. I'm pointing out to you that by your
standard, both companies are unethical, and there is really no reason to trust
either. Just in case you didn't know Facebook's stance on real names...

~~~
wccrawford
You have never heard me claim that Facebook was ethical.

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helipad
With only ~300 friends, it seems sort of pointless to curate my feed into 'Top
Stories'. Over the course of a day, there are only a couple of things that get
my friends commenting or clicking 'like', and they don't get lost because
there is no noise.

It's as if Facebook thinks we're all Power Users (TM) with 1,000+ friends who
cannot possibly keep up with the demands of 'real-time' updates.

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highriseo
The thing that scares me most about this redesign is that Facebook is spending
resources making half baked UX changes instead of focusing energy into doing
something new an innovative.

Lists might have their place in the future, and somehow users might get used
to a more cluttered design. Ultimately, these types of features are tweaks on
a product and not a game changer.

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georgemcbay
Each redesign they do lately seems to bring them closer to the look & feel of
myspace.

wtf are they thinking?

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dupe123
Oh god. This is horrifying. Less is more facebook.. less is more. I agree with
the people complaining about facebooks need to curate things for you. Thats
what the "hide posts from this person" should be used for. Just give me one
stream and let me decide what filters to put on it.

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dadads
I'm not one of the lucky few who gets to see it, unfortunately.

Thus... Screenshots pl0x.

~~~
thatjoshguy
<http://cl.ly/AJp0>

Having a 27" screen, I don't mind it. The only things that bug me is the
triangle at the top of each post, and your profile pic up in the header (which
now floats)

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algorithms
It's such a shame. G+ has so much potential but unless everyone joins the game
it won't succeed. Facebook really has a TERRIBLE User Experience compared to
G+ Let's hope it won't end in a new Bing vs. Google situation

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suheimi
Agree. I see a ghost town in G+ and see a big city in Facebook with all their
traffics and unmanage bugs. Facebook just copied the G+ features, but could
not copy the concept behind it. I hope both Facebook and G+ success and find
their own market.

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primigenus
The right-hand bar feels very "app" like. I wonder if their intention is to
transition, through many iterations, Facebook into more of an "app-like"
design and less of a "website"?

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fsniper
This is why I still enjoy using FriendFeed. No fuss no confusions. A working
social environment.

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sssparkkk
Still rolling out apparently, I'm not getting the redesigned facebook.

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n9com
Count yourself lucky, it's like twitter, Facebook and google+ mixed into a
dirty stew.

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madiator
Clutter++

