Old vs New
(Souce: Google 2009)
20 July 2008 was the day Facebook had a makeover, upsetting many of its users. It was said that the change was to improve Facebook, upgrading it into a newer, cleaner and simpler design. Facebook, one of the world's hottest social networking site, unveiled a whole new look and design with the purpose of providing constant updates on what the user's friends are up to. This is one of the highlighted feature the new facebook has to offer. (Richards 2008)
Product Manager for the new Facebook (Mark Slee) aims to give the site a cleaner and simpler look by reducing clutter. The profile page comes with a single status feed including the wall, menus combined into a single navigation bar with additional info and photos pulled into a tab called "Publisher". All the applications have been grouped into the Boxes tab. Users can add additional application tabs as they like.
Mark Slee, the lead product manager for the new Facebook design, said: "We understand that some people will be uncomfortable with the changes. But over time, we think people will appreciate the advantages of the new design and the new features it offers."
An interview with Lead Product Manager of the new Facebook, Mark Slee
(Source: Scobleizer tv)
An uproaring protest group on the site who labelled themselves as Petition Against the "New Facebook" has now grown to more than a million members.
Negative comments of some users:
"Now, obviously Facebook is a free service and it can implement any changes it wants - if you don't like it, don't use it. But I'll be honest, this new information overload isn't exactly helping me keep tabs on what people are up to. If anything, it's now more of a hinderance." (Head 2009)
"It is so much harder to use. Why couldn't they just leave it the way it was?" (Elise 2008)
"It may be faster but the layout is too confusing. Facebook will never be the same again." (Slyvia 2008)
Facebook was thankful that there were some positive comments too.
Positive comments of some users:
"It's much easier to use now. People were used to the old version; it will just take them a while to become familiar with this one." (Gemma 2008)
Despite that all the big hoo-has, till today, Facebook (2009) is at a point where it has almost all 150 million users around the world and are actively using Facebook, with the new design. (Zuckerberg 2009)
According to Schriver (1997), document designers have to bear in mind that the designs they choose to or not to use maybe be significant to their readers. Changes made, whether is it visually or verbally present or missing elements may affect their readers. In this situation, when the bias decision making in designing the document clashes with a reader's perspective, it might turn an interested audience into an unhappy one (Schriver 1997).
Facebook is here to stay. When changes are made, its either you accept it or you stop using it.
It is as simple as that. The new designs and features come with improved applications, simpler and more seamless. The will be options for users to interact with any application before it is granted access to that application and before publishing.
References
1. Australianit.com.au 2008, 'Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming', Australian IT (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html
2. Head, W. 2009, 'New new look Facebook arrives', iGizmo.co.uk (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://www.igizmo.co.uk/articles/blogs/1193-online-new-new-look-facebook-arrives
3. Reed, J. 2008, 'Backlash against 'new look' Facebook', BBC Newsbeat (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7612000/7612378.stm
4. Richards, J. 2008, 'Keep track of friends with Facebook's new look', Times Online (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4372905.ece
5. Slee, M. 2008, New Facebook Frequently Asked Questions (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=29205447130
6. Scobleizer TV 2008, A Look Behind Facebook's New Design (Online accessed 12 June 2009)URL: http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/a-look-behind-facebooks-new-design
7. Schriver, K.A. 1997, Chapter 6 in Dynamics in document design.
8. Zuckerberg , M. 2009, A Great Start to 2009 (Online accessed 12 June 2009)
URL: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=46881667130
Here's an analogy, take life for an example. Changes are the only constant thing in life, it applies the same for Facebook application, would you rather have it stick to the old, mundane layout for good ole 50 years? I'm sure we all love changes once in awhile :D
ReplyDeleteAgreeed! (:
ReplyDeletewell i surely love facebook! who doesn't? but facebook seems to be over rating me...there are too much spams on quizzes but one thing i like about fb is that they are very interactive and the ads are under control :)
ReplyDeleteEverything in life changes at some point.If even the people we have known for years can change into someone we can hardly recognise, what more something that has to always evolve into something new and fresh like Facebook in order to attract more users. Although we may have missed that good old user-friendly Facebbok applications and layout, we are always able to adapt to new changes around us. It is our nature as homosapiens after all! So lets cheers to the new Fb and pray that we all learn to grasp the changes asap! =)
ReplyDeleteAt First,i too did not react positively when i came across the changes on facebook and went on telling all my friends about all the frustrations i was having to deal wih due to the new layout and all..I clouldnt find half of my aplications and kept on dwealing on why they had to do the change but after using it,i got use to it and if you were to ask me now,which versionof facebook i prefer,i would say the one i have now. Its true that we have to get use to changes and changes challenge s to become more develop human beings. I like how you used all aspects in your article. Good Job.
ReplyDelete