Facebook Starts Deploying Revamped Home Page
Facebook began rolling out their much-publicized new user home page redesign today. This refresh brings a revamped page with an improved share box (called the Publisher), new filtering controls, a real-time stream, and a highlights area that shows important items from the stream. We first reported on these changes last week.
We got a chance to spend a few minutes with Facebook product manager Peter Deng covering the update plus a short question and answer session. He said there were two motivations driving these changes: First, moving to real-time updates (stopping short of a live flood view) means more spontaneous conversations in the feed. Second, improved filtering will mean Facebook users will have the power to only see the stuff they want to see.
In our opinion, what Facebook calls filters could perhaps be described more as different views on your overall activity stream. You select the type of things you want to see, like photos or web links, and your stream is updated to reflect that view. In addition, you can create filter groups including subsets of the people you want to see updates from, for example members of your family. In any case, we think it's a step in the right direction, especially if you have a lot of Facebook friends and activity and have trouble finding the content you are interested in.
When we moved on to the Publisher (the area of the page that allows you to add stuff to the new Facebook home page), Peter pointed out that they are definitely committed to enabling more sharing of content, both within the Facebook system and with external networks and applications via the Facebook Connect interface. We were glad to get confirmation that they are indeed working toward a more open model.
Speaking of the Publisher, it's now more modal, allowing you to choose what type of item you would like to share. We have seen this sort of modal format on social networks like Friendfeed and Tumblr and it is a clear improvement - it provides a focal point to each update as well as allowing the new filtering system to work more effectively.
Finally, the highlights section of the revamped home page will show more persistent content such as conversations, notes and photos, popular links, and new Facebook content your friends discover such as public profiles.
Of course, just like previous Facebook deployments, this isn't a mass cut-over. Accounts are being moved over to the new design gradually, so we'll have to be patient until it arrives to everyone.
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I'm in GA and don't yet have the new interface, but I am looking forward to it.
I want this so bad....
I’m often baffled by how the recent Twitter frenzy has overlooked the brand opportunity for marketers on Facebook, along with the lack of scale for Twitter. Yes, Twitter now has 6 million users, but Facebook has 175 million! More importantly, according to Nielsen’s recent report on social networks (which we covered this week), Facebook users spend an average of 3 hours and 10 minutes on the site per-month; the highest average time per-person amongst the 75 most popular brands online.
I've now been 'granted' the new look - where are the groups, live feed etc, I can't find them anywhere and I have *really* looked!
Not a fan.
Excellent description of new facebook home page. Thank you.
I am very dissappointed in the new change to facebook!!!!! my profile page was set up exactly how I wanted it with all of my photos in a scrapbook setting and all of my friends and family loved it, seeing my kids and all of our parties, who wants their home page to be like their profile page!!!! what's the point?? I cannot delete items off my profile page like I used to, anything I write on someone's wall, also shows up on my home page for everyone to read, unbelievable when people fix what's not broken, all of my friends are very dissappointed also, we will be looking for a new website to communicate on that we have control over and setting up our own pages and info, and put the info where we want it, not where facebook wants to put it.... hating your new changes in Illinois....... a lot...... Melanie
Governments are starting to come down hard against facebook, banning it left and right.
I like the new facebook homepage, but the best homepage site by far is sthrt.com and the best part is... it fits in perfect with the facebook homepage. I would check both out.
Any redesign takes time to get used to and is usually met with cries of outrage. I try not to be one of those people.
That said, there are quite a few inconsistencies and missing pieces to the puzzle with this redesign. Facebook seems to miss the boat on simple usability testing with real users and instead comes through with something that sounds good but doesn't behave precisely as a user would expect.
The "filters" in the left nav doesn't include all of the standard facebook apps, such as seeing only status updates. The apps filter list contain different apps for different people, but almost uniformly apps that the user has not added. There is seemingly no way to add options to the list.
Clicking "notes" or "links" in the left rail doesn't allow you to view your notes or links, just others. You have to go to your profile page to view these. If you don't have links or notes added as a tab (with Links not even being an option), you have to scroll through your profile page to find them.
Clicking "Links" in the left nav takes you to a different place than clicking "links" in the bottom left applications menu.
Finding how to post a note has been buried.
Even the publisher has now led to confusion. The "Twitter" model of "What's on your mind" works well for status updates. However, writing on someone's wall or posting a link now adds your comment in the same third-person style and status-update design. My post on a friend's wall reads "Lisa Lastname Happy Birthday John!" A comment on a link reads "Lisa Lastname This is a great story on Facebook." Confusing and unnecessary. Blockquoting the comment was fine.
Additionally, the horizontal menu of options that appears below the "What's on your mind" text box is not the same for each user. "Links" "Photos" and "Video" most seem to have, but then random apps that you may or may not have added. Again, no way to tweak this, seemingly.
Finally, "highlights" seems to have no rhyme and reason. I have over 400 people on my friend list, but most of the highlights haven't changed in 36 hours, and many of them were posted days ago and haven't had any new comments in nearly all that time.
I am not happy with the facebook layout. Everything should be made simpler and fit within an ergonomic framework to be accessible and comfortable to use. Maybe the next update will get it right.
That said, there are quite a few inconsistencies and missing pieces to the puzzle with this redesign. Facebook seems to miss the boat on simple usability testing with real users and instead comes through with something that sounds good but doesn't behave precisely as a user would expect.
http//wwwfacebook.com
Great post.Thanks..