Review: Facebook's new face
A few weeks back I admitted my fondness for social network Facebook, noting the ease and fun it offers in keeping up with your friends. I was an early adopter of its GUI makeover, and with the word that Facebook users will be switched over this week (if they haven't been already) being met with such animosity, I feel it is time to weigh in.
The new Facebook design is cleaner, prettier and easier to use than the previous iteration. Everything on one main page used to be so cluttered and crowded, and it left curious browsers to scroll down endlessly through unhatched eggs, superhero powers, flair pins and other apps. It took me a few minutes of fiddling to get my settings just right with the updated tabbed version of browsing, but overall I'm pleased with the effect and happy to have the options.
Just in overall design, the homepage is sleek but somewhat familiar -- the developers kept everything pretty much in the same place as before, so users looking for their notifications can still glance to the right menu, and updates are listed down the left. The main profile page is open and very well managed. The user picture is a standard size, with a new text box available to give curious wanderers, like old classmates and would-be-friends, an intro to who you are.
Overall, the 'new' Facebook gets a thumbs up from me. It was an adjustment, as change always is, but I'm happier with the new than I was with the old.
To my Facebook friends who have joined the various user groups sprouting up in protest of the new design, I lovingly say this: Get over it. Facebook isn't doing this to upset you, and it isn't doing this to make itself worse. Trust the developers to do what they think is best, and if it doesn't end up working, I will happily accept your emails of 'I told you so's.
PS -- Did you know 'I told you so' has a brother? His name is 'Shut the hell up.' :)
[In full disclosure, I did not make that up. I got it from Bella in Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, who in turn got it from a Simpsons episode. Doesn't mean it's not hilarious and true.]
The new Facebook design is cleaner, prettier and easier to use than the previous iteration. Everything on one main page used to be so cluttered and crowded, and it left curious browsers to scroll down endlessly through unhatched eggs, superhero powers, flair pins and other apps. It took me a few minutes of fiddling to get my settings just right with the updated tabbed version of browsing, but overall I'm pleased with the effect and happy to have the options.
Just in overall design, the homepage is sleek but somewhat familiar -- the developers kept everything pretty much in the same place as before, so users looking for their notifications can still glance to the right menu, and updates are listed down the left. The main profile page is open and very well managed. The user picture is a standard size, with a new text box available to give curious wanderers, like old classmates and would-be-friends, an intro to who you are.
Overall, the 'new' Facebook gets a thumbs up from me. It was an adjustment, as change always is, but I'm happier with the new than I was with the old.
To my Facebook friends who have joined the various user groups sprouting up in protest of the new design, I lovingly say this: Get over it. Facebook isn't doing this to upset you, and it isn't doing this to make itself worse. Trust the developers to do what they think is best, and if it doesn't end up working, I will happily accept your emails of 'I told you so's.
PS -- Did you know 'I told you so' has a brother? His name is 'Shut the hell up.' :)
[In full disclosure, I did not make that up. I got it from Bella in Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn, who in turn got it from a Simpsons episode. Doesn't mean it's not hilarious and true.]
Labels: new facebook design
This entry was posted by Amber, on Friday, September 12, 2008. You can
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