Jared W. Smith

Facebook is publicly beta testing a drastic redesign of their site to try to allay a lot of complaints that the site has become extremely cluttered with applications (oh, has it ever). While reactions seem mixed, I think this new design has a potential to be a real winner. I, personally, can’t go back to the old look now.

Diving In

If you have Facebook, you should be able to get into the beta by logging in at http://www.new.facebook.com. While the login page (at least the last time I saw it) looks like the old design, upon logging in you’ll be greeted with a wider layout and a rearranged menu. The new Facebook menu works to eliminate the left sidebar throughout the site, providing room in the revamped profile. While the Facebook logo still takes you home, you’ll find that instead of your profile, the menu will show your name there. The Friends option still works as you’d expect, letting you see status updates, recently updated folks, all your friends, and advanced searches with friend lists; the Applications menu is where the application list that was formerly in the sidebar moved to. It lists recently used applications so you can get to them a bit quicker, too. Facebook Messaging doesn’t seem to be much different right now; that could change between now and the official launch.

The Home Page

Structurally, the home page hasn’t changed much. Along the top of the page, there are new links to change status or post notes or media. The News Feed is a bit wider now with the elimination of the left sidebar, while requests, status updates, birthdays, etc. remain in the right sidebar along with the addition of a Bookmarks feature which seems to be a list of the top applications you access (you can rearrange this, much like you were able to do on the old site). Otherwise, the basic concept of this page has not changed much.

Profiles — The Big, Huge, Gigantic Change (For The Better!)

Profiles are a completely different story. The focus of this redesign was to revamp the profile pages. Facebook profiles have been overrun, MySpace-style, with applications since the Facebook Platform launched last year. After many iterations, this is the path Facebook is headed. Note the tabs running across the top; these tabs are actually customizable, depending on the applications you have installed.

The biggest change with Profiles, and the one is that is going to throw everybody right off course, is that the new Wall is a combination of the traditional Facebook wall with the user’s Mini-Feed. I have to say, and I’ve seen this observation scattered elsewhere too — this is very, VERY FriendFeedy. I find the new interface more conducive to conversation, believe it or not. With that in mind, I can see a whole lot of college students who have used Facebook for years becoming extremely confused at this new setup. Wall filters are available; one can click “Posts by User” to get roughly the equivalent of the old Mini-Feed, while “Posts By Others” shows a more traditional wall view. This is a gutsy call by Facebook; I’m not sure how well it’ll play with the masses. I, personally, like it — I think it’s very conducive to sharing and creating content on Facebook — but I suspect I’ll be in the minority here.

In addition to status updates — which are extremely Twittery, by the way (“What are you doing right now?”) — there’s a small block just below the profile picture where you can write a small block of text; basically it is intended as a quick description of you. (Instead, I use it for a Thunder in Paradise quote, because that’s how I roll.) In the blue box directly beneath the synopsis box, you can choose to display quick information, such as your networks, your relationship status, birthday, websites, etc. The Friends listing is more customizable; you can show up to 12 friends, and Facebook lets you pick “Top Friends” as well…very MySpacey of them, and I’m not sure I agree with it. Applications such as Notes, Photos, etc. can dot the left sidebar beneath the friends list; you can add and remove a limited number of apps here (though I’m having trouble getting a few apps over to it *cough*twitter*cough* right now; I’ll chalk this up to being a beta). You’ll find that most of your Facebook apps have moved to the “Boxes” tab.

You’ll also find that your more detailed information has moved to the “Info” tab. This is where the traditional Facebook information lives; your groups and pages are also listed here. This view is the only one to share a sidebar with the Wall view; after you dive into other apps, such as Photos, that left sidebar will disappear. This seems somewhat jarring at first; though it’s fair to say that previous iterations of Facebook didn’t include profile information directly on Photos, etc. either.

Smith’s Final Thoughts

Facebook has no choice but to be as open as possible with the deployment of this new design. Facebook users are among the toughest to satisfy I think I have ever seen in my several years of using it; you’d think college students would be more adaptable to change, but they’re definitely not when it comes to Facebook (at least not right away). To Facebook’s credit, they’ve been open with the idea from the getgo, starting a Facebook Profiles Preview group early on in the process and asking for feedback at multiple rounds of development. Now that I’m able to get my hands on their work, I’ve been impressed. There are bugs to squash, sure, but as I said before, I can’t go back to the old look. This design is a major improvement, matures the product substantially, and reflects Facebook’s commitment to running a tight ship but still giving ample customization opportunity. Will it make me increase my usage of the site? Not sure. I have a lot of issues with their stance on data portability and other things; I also think sites such as FriendFeed have beaten Facebook at their own game in the activity aggregation department. However, I think the changes have been desperately needed, and the countless number of Facebook addicts will eventually warm to the new look anyway.