Do you like the changes?
March 20, 2009 by Kine
I assume most of you got the new Facebook layout last week, so what do you think?
On Sunday me and some friends were eating out, and then someone suddenly said “so, what do you think about the new Facebook?” Not actually shocking that this has been a hot topic the last week, and as always, we all have different opinions. I will admit that my first impression was that it all looked a bit messy, but I will think that’s a normal reaction when something has completely changed overnight. However, I don’t see the changes as a big deal, spending so much time on Facebook, I’m sure I quickly will learn to use the site and get a better overview. But like last time, lots of people really don’t like the new look, and I have been getting invited to several groups that is “protesting”. I come over a page someone has made on Facebook, where you could actually vote for or against the new layout, and most of the comments are not surprisingly, negative; “It seems to be a desperate attempt to head off Twitter. Realise it’s not a competition...”
I think the conclusion that could be drawn from this is that people just don’t like changes, and that’s not something new. But why doesn’t it seem like much of people don’t understand that changes is a way in improving and trying to make things better, without this there wouldn’t be any development.
That’s exactly the point Kine: people don’t like change. I accept that some people genuinely don’t like the new layout, but most are protesting solely because a change has been made.
I also tend to think that once one persons status changes to “man the new facebook sucks”, people follow like sheep.
I tend to think groups like your talking about give people the illusion of collective action and rebellion. Most don’t even care about the look but join anyway.
I think I will say that again, Facebook is lacking serious segmentation strategy, you can and will never please everybody! You will ended up pleasing no one. It’s lacking identity, who are they appealing to? The advertising on my profile page has never got anything to do with me, completely irrelevant. Everything else just look like a big ‘mashup’ with API’s from everywhere trying to get everybody in. They are suffering fro their own success and unfortunately seemed to have got lost.
I was irritated at first by the new look, but now I’m used to it.
The only thing I would criticize is that I think there are too much information on the main page, without differntiating between the ones which are really important to me and the ones which concern more my friends.
But actually that was the same before, it just seems more obvious now.
I personally don’y mind the new look – ok it may be a bit complicated but it looks a bit more stylish and seems to have improved the usability of the site. However I agree with Anderson that they do seem to have just borrowed parts from other sites (especially twitter) and tried to just stick it all together. The Home page is now a bit hectic but I imagine there are preference settings so we can decide what info. we are getting coming up on our home news feed!
All in all, I think people do not like change – especially when the change does not offer a vast improvement.
I like the new look, I think it is very important to improve the a product and make it more user friendly. Even though, as Tom say, people don’t like change, they will forget about it.
Happy Birthday by the way!