When people started posting status messages about the new Facebook design, I did not get it at first… They said it was confusing. One even said that we should just wait for six months or so – when everyone is used to the current design, and Facebook will make another change…
When the change was implemented to my account (it seemed that they did not drop it like a big bomb on everyone), I realized what they were talking about. It is very different. And you need more clicks to get to where you need to go.
First, they placed the bookmarks and applications in the sidebar of the main page… It used to be at the bottom of the screen, visible in every page you go. So, if you need to make use of your bookmarks, you need to go to the home page, and click.
The “Friends On-line” is a handy feature… but, doesn’t the chat do that already? Well, maybe facebook wants us to have a quick glance, rather than click the chat. Then again, if you have thousands of friends on-line, then the chat would be very annoying to use… I can’t even imagine how it will look like, seeing that I only have a handful of friends, and not all of them are on-line at the same time.
Perhaps the largest annoyance I had with the new design is that I can’t find my friends page. You know, the one where you can view all your friends, manage lists, view pending requests, recent friends, etc? While there is a friends link in the sidebar, clicking it would show a list of friends that updated, and also friends’ updates arranged by lists.
Now, to show the friends page that I was talking about, I had to manually input the URL, which by the way, is http://www.facebook.com/friends/. I have yet to discover where in the facebook world it is located accessible by a mouse click.
The top bar also had changes in them… Countless times, I would find myself pointing my mouse to the top-left portion in search of the home menu, only to be reminded that it is now in the right side…
The notifications at the top bar are handy. I like the fact that the friend requests, messages and new stuff are highlighted by a red number. Previously, I barely notice the alert of new messages unless I use the main navigation… Now, one quick glance at the page, and my eye is alerted by a small, red dot… “Oh, something new!”
Well, so far, those are my experiences with the new design… I know this will take a lot of getting used to. Hey, nothing in this world is permanent, right?
I only wish that the bookmark is more accessible – rather than having to go to the home page. I can only imagine how hard that would be for those with slow browsers…
How was your experience with the change?
See you around.
It’s about time smooene wrote about this.