I’m sure you’ve noticed – Facebook has had another redesign. I’m beginning to wonder if we need to stage a KatiePriceAKAJordan-style surgery intervention, such is the number of times things have been whitened, tightened, and moved a bit right(ened).
But I’m not here to cast judgement (even though that is my FAVOURITE thing). After redesign #431 I decided it wasn’t worth holding anything on the site dear, since in all likelihood, I’d find it relegated to a sub-sub-sub-menu the next time I logged on. But I’m in the minority in my blasé attitude.
It turns out, people really hate a Facebook redesign. More than Gordon Brown, more than snow, more than Snog, Marry, Avoid (BBC Three. Watch it.). I’ve seen fewer ‘Get Facebook to change the layout BACK!!!!’ groups than in previous times (presumably because people have realised Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t really give two social networky hoots) but there are plenty of status updates that are there to provide me with a snapshot of feelings.
Maybe it’s because we all think of it as ‘my site’ – when you’ve got all your friends there, it stores your photos and you use it to arrange your birthday party it’s easy to forget it actually belongs to someone else. And that someone wants to maximise the bits that make him money.
Maybe it’s because we (by which I mean I) hate change. I like to think I’m too busy to try and work out where the notifications sit now. Admittedly, that’s because I’ve wasted a whole day watching a snake eat a deer again and again and again (nature is MENTAL), but busy nonetheless. I thought it was fine before, and this just adds an added level of ‘wha…?’ to my Facebook experience.
Maybe it’s because it changes too often – it’s unsettling, not to mention the few days post-redesign, where everything’s inevitably a little bit buggy. There’s little communication from on high, contrary to a company like Google, who keep a regularly updated blog to inform users of changes.
My advice to anyone who is bothered by the redesign is to take a screengrab of the site as it is. Whilst you might hate it now, in three months’ time, this will be the version you’ll be begging Zuckerberg to return to when he decides to mix things up again. And watch out for Facebook nipping off behind your back to go and marry a cage fighter, somewhere in Vegas.
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This is the funniest thing I’ve read all day (okay, okay, I know it’s only 10am, but still…)
And totally agree with the “this will be the version you’ll be begging Zuckerberg to return to when he decides to mix things up again”.
I happen to like some aspects of the redesign, such as keeping the same colour blue and not changing the logo.
It’s all the other stuff that has confused me.. but you’re spot on, in no time at all we’ll all be loving this and hating the prospect of further changes. Let’s face it, Facebook is not sure what works, and is trying different things in the hope of ‘cracking it’, coupled with the need to try and compete with other services that probably aren’t even proper competition anyway. Does Twitter really step on the toes of Facebook, especially in the longer term?
You can’t please all the people all of the time, so perhaps Facebook should let people choose from a range of design layouts… or create their own. Not in a MySpace way where you can make your friends physically sick by visiting your profile, but in a way that you can customise your design on your login only.
It can’t be long until Facebook goes back to the very original design, having realised the retro appeal, and we all start over.
For the last couple of layout changes, I’ve actually thought people need to stop whining and accept that the new one is an improvement, even if it is a bit different. This time, I find myself wishing they’d calm down and stick to one for a while. Especially considering it seems to be functionally identical to the old one and just have moved some stuff around a bit.
Gordon.
Fixed, thanks Stuart.