Generally with movie titles the sequel to a good movie is often rather shocking. How often have you seen a movie get rave reviews and then when number two arrives it just falls flat on its face? I would say quite often.
Fortunately this usually is not the case with websites, often a new website means a cleaner design with better user functionality and more features. It usually harnesses new web tech and loads quicker. Just take a look at the redesign of Mint.com to know what I mean.
Unfortunately this has not been the case with Facebook '2.0'... In this post I am going to analyze why the new design is not so pleasing to the eye.
Before I start, I think it is worth stating that OBOX is a huge Facebook fan. It is one of our 5 permanent tabs in Firefox and it is something we use to network with friends & clients and promote our web work etc. Half the reason this post is being posted is because I feel that our favourite site has been man handled instead of caressed.
Old Facebook
So let us first look at the old version. One of the best parts about Facebook was that it took one look at Web 2.0 design trends and kicked them in the face. There were no round corners, no shadows and no glossy surfaces. Just clean cut design with great spacing between elements. It stuck with the old but looked like the new.
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In many ways the old Facebook didn't need any touching at all. Out of all the new design elements in the Facebook, the only one I like and feel should have been implemented in the old version was a tabbed wall. If it was up to me I would have left the rest alone.
The New Facebook
We want to know what happened to the person who designed the original Facebook. Where has that person gone? Based on my analysis Facebook 2.0 suffers from the following:
- Web 2.0 trends - Round corners, shadows (usually not a bad thing)
- Inconsistency (the main focus of this dissection)
- Poor white space management
- Poor balance
- Sloppiness
Web 2.0 Trends and Inconsistency
Lets start with Web 2.0 trends and their inconsistent implementation. If you visit the home page and look at the header you will notice subtle round corners. Venture to the right side of the page and there is a side bar, containing current community activity, which also has round corners. One of the biggest Web 2.0 design trends is the use of round corners, if done properly it looks lovely. But if we look carefully at the ones on the home page you will notice two very different versions of rounded edges, their radius is not the same.
We will now visit the profile page. Once an awesome combination of great spacing and neat edges. Not so now, the header has round edges but your info box is still contained in a square. My first question is why is the info even contained and secondly why is it not rounded like the side bar on the home page. Further analysis unveils something which is not seen anywhere else on the site.... shadows, though subtle, I feel they have an unnecessary presence.
Poor whitespace management
The width of the new site is 960px but most pages can't fill the space. The content in Application / Plugin pages are 640px wide, Adverts are 160px but they are aligned to the far right of the page, this leaves a gap in between the two of 120px... that is enough space to park an A380. I am going to hazard a guess and say that they are leaving this space open for bigger adverts but for now is looks horrible.
Poor balance
It is always 'nice' to achieve a good balance in design, it can be the most basic of elements which weights a site correctly but when it works you will have a lot of freedom to be creative elsewhere without standing back and asking yourself 'what is wrong here'. Well take a look at this.
I really hope that the runway in between these two columns is used for something...
Sloppiness
It is the minor details that can make or break a great website design. Some bold fonts there, 1 extra pixel here, 1px less there. I can just imagine the guys at WooThemes analysing their perfect grid based designs until they themselves turn into pixels. It seems that the refiners at Facebook are still human though, just as an example, the home page is 2px out on the right hand side.
It doesn't stop there, the headers on the wall are not consistent either, and while we are on the subject of the wall... is it just me or does it look like a complete mess of font sizes and icons. I think that the padding (top and bottom) for each item on the wall is 5px too little.
Conclusion
I am predicting that this post will generate a lot of hate mail, maybe I'll get kicked off Facebook... who knows.
There was nothing wrong with the previous design, it could have been refined more and would have maybe lasted another 5 years before looking old. What I am predicting is that the new design is in preparation for a barrage of advertising. Hopefully I am very wrong because by doing so I think that Facebook will alienate some of its users and may even go in the direction of MySpace, which is now beyond saving. Let us hope that this is not the case. The new design can still be a success, hopefully Mr. Z is onto it already.
For now though 'The New Facebook' has elements which have either been rushed or designers have been too lazy to fix the details.'The New Facebook' looks like a really old one...
Update: Almost exactly one year later Facebook has decided to remove the rounded corners designs. This is what they say:
Since we introduced rounded corners to Facebook, their consistent use has been spotty at best. The corner radii vary, and it sometimes feels arbitrary which corners are rounded and which are not. Additionally, they add an extra layer of complexity to the code (note: IE, please add support for border-radius).
As part of the effort to simplify our visual style, the design team recently decided to go back to our square corner roots. In doing so, we hope to champion cleanliness and the razor cut look that Facebook is known for.
Don't say I didn't tell you so.
76 Comments
Very nice post. I agree that they really seem to have rushed this and not spent the time they should have refining it. I get the feeling it wasnt built from concept art, but more from some one just getting the style sheet and doing edit on top of edit.
But I can see what they have tried to do the tabbing and re grouping of the content I feel is much better, I just think a *good* designer needs to sit down with it and work some magic...
Do the designers of facebook have a way of telling how many people are using the old site still and how many have moved on to the new site?
In face books case its not money or time, its just finding the right people for the job and so far they failed And I think its a good thing that designers bring this up, its a huge site, and they should have known there was no room for mistakes
Good post :)
I couldnt agree with you more on this, the overall design has definately taken a turn for the worse.
Totally agree with you - find the whole new design awkward to use and the white spacing just looks horrendous. What on earth are they doing? And why when I keep clicking "go back to the old facebook" do I then keep getting the new design - me thinks their cookies aren;t working correctly either! Just a general BAH! at facebook right now. Good article!
Good stuff, Never use facebook, but youve just given me another reason not to sign up :)
Totally agree.
The whole place is just a mess now, I cant find anything for the life of me.
By the way I subscribed to your feed, I like the cut of your guys jib. Keep it up!
Awesome review..! yep.. i agree, maybe the designers were in a rush when doing this. but we also have to think that from a designers/coders view, we are all concern about the design, usability, functionality, right? but for "normal" end-users they dont really care much about it, all they can say is "i like it" or "i dont like it". well thats what ive heard from these users. anyway.. thanks for this post... great site you got here.. bookmarked!!!!!! rock on!!
Completely agree with everything in this post. Well-written. It just innately hurts the eyes, and as a designer, this is so apparent upon first usage.
Great Post!
I wrote them similar hate mail about the new layout. It makes the left side of my face go numb looking at it, and I just pretend it doesnt exist.
I really dont like the design for a lot of the reasons that you pointed out. Another thing to note is how the usability isnt as intuitive as the original. To change the way you click through the website so drastically is kind of annoying. I hope they dont take away the old version option anytime soon.
Jesus christ, how about cry some more. Its just facebook.
I cant believe theyre forcing us all to use the new Facebook. I absolutely hate the new design. The new "Wall" gives me headaches...
The new Facebook sucks. Its a abomination to the eyes with absolutely no practical design.
The new Facebook pretty much eliminated obtrusive and annoying apps, which is 1 in my books.
im not going to use it a lot now it sucks
I feel so stupid now that Ive been so strident to get my "I love Myspace because its so personisable" friends to migrate over to Facebook, and then they pull this shit?
The new Facebook sucks!
I wholeheartedly agree with all your comments. The redesign is clumsy and totally counter-intuitive. I was really attracted to the simplicity and straightforward layout of the old Facebook, its clean lines and pure functionality. I used to love MySpace before it got completely cluttered with advertising and those horrific drop-down banners. I too sincerely hope that Facebook isnt going down the same route, but like you realise that, by the look of the redisign, it will be almost ineveitable. Id love to hear your thoughts on the new Last.fm redesign, which occurred at almost the exact same time and seems to be heading in very much the same direction.
YES DAMNIT! I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID, WHY THE * WILL THOSE AMATEUR DESIGNERS NOT LISTEN!
the new facebook SUCKS! why did they have to break up ONE page into freakin four pages now? the tabs are horrible! everything is so disjointed now. and the developers have the audacity to say that is more "user friendly"... to advertisers, mabye....
I remember when Facebook had their last interface update about 1 year ago. I wasnt so thrilled about the design and changes then. It was still user unfriendly. It was a pain to use. Since then, I have grown accustomed to using it, because at least it was somewhat consistent.
With this new interface change, I feel like we are back to square one of the unfriendly usability issue. I think the real problem with facebook is that they dont do enough user testing. Perhaps, they have a lack of funding for it. Hence, they just decide to set it live so that they can track what people like (the facebook before or the facebook now).
The good thing about this facebook metamorphisis is it allows users to revert back to the old facebook if they didnt like the new one. Most community sites force users to accept change. How often have we gotten the choice to revert back? The last facebook didnt give us that option either.
Bottom line is Facebook needed to do more planning, proper designing, and more user testing.
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Facebook is also trying ways to avoid being the next mySpace i think. i hate mySpace. Its just so crowded and visually busy. With the recent "add your own application" feature on facebook, some users dont know when to stop adding mindless objects on their pages. They just want to be "unique".
When youve got 10 applications showing at once, it makes the page busy. It takes forever to load for people who have slow connection/computers. Plus, with so many visual garbage in the way, the more important community values of facebook gets forgotten.
man i cant even load facebook no more cus this * horrible new design. my internet is not the greatest but this is the one site i cant open at all. someone give me the contact information so i can write a very angry e-mail to who ever thought this was a good idea.
can anybody help..facebook is a screw up when i log in it opens to main page notifications requests on the right, but i cant open my message box, go into my profile check out my friends, friends i havnt heard of in six years...infact it bombs out but my friends can access straight away..with out difficulty on the same computer who can help me.
i am one of the unlucky ones who get picked to use the new facebook PERMANENTLY as of today. I have no "click here to go back to the old facebook" link anymore. I dont like it. i dont even know how to write on my own wall... that is like the basic function of facebook. i dont understand why they dont leave the option open... i mean let the new-facebookers use the new design, and the old-facebookers use the old design. thats fair. i mean its not like they cant do that... theyve been doing it for over a month now.
well said... couldnt agree more. its so REDUNDANT now... all the pages look like the same thing just rejumbled up. it sucks! completely unintuitive. not an improvement at all. THANKS FOR ANOTHER USELESS LEARNING CURVE, ASSHOLES
Ill say t his...Facebook is going to lose a lot of value if they force users to use the new design... Simple is what made facebook great..
great article. i hate the new facebook with 2 passions. it isnt set up logically and the new wall/news feed makes my head hurt and i cant read my friends post:( it looks messed up and i think the over aesthetics of the old design were much better. so now i always choose sent feedback and send hate messages. oh and under the ads the are little thumbs up thumbs sown buttons. i always choose the down one and click other and when its ask why i type "i wont click on any ads until old facebook comes back". if enough people do it, the advertisers will force facebook to go back to the old
I think "New Facebook" is a complete abomination and it must be exterminated immediately. Why fix something if it aint broke?
As most people mentioned, the new layout is confusing and it feels very uncomfortable. Hopefully the creators of Facebook will realize that a large amount of people detest the new layout and switch back to the original design - which isnt likely but who knows.
Yodee: Do you mean that only some people permanently got chosen to use the new FB? I thought everybody permanently got switched. I hate the stupid new design just as much. I hear some people are working on Greasemonkey scripts to make things easier navigating/looking at the site, but I dont think anything besides reverting back to the old design or getting some new designers will bring back the usability and friendliness of the older layout.
THANK YOU! Seriously everything stated in this post is correct. I know that I should not be so perturbed by something so minor but the total lack of choice I was given REALLY infuriates me. My brain does not work in a way that is complementary to the new layout which makes me feel quite stupid and internet inept when trying to navigate it. Seriously, what can we do???? In your opinion do you think that they will give users the choice of format if enough people complain consistently?
I HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK... GREAT POST.
The new facebook sucks so much its like a shmuck with AD and a boat load of nose candy took the old layout and made it a complete and utterly mess! I really hope facebook suffers so much that they will have no other chance but to go back to the previous layout.
you can get back to the old version by joining the group "I figured out how to keep the old facebook."
@Saima
Thanks for the heads up!
I totally agree, the new face book looks like it was just thrown together in a second, not much thought at all.. You cant personalize you page like the old one, every page you go on is the same as the next.. ITS HORRIBLE!!!!!.. I wish they would change it back.. Let society express themselfs through their profile image not jsut their font and what they fill into the blanks.. ugh.. great post..
Wow...haha, Im a webdesigner, and I was preaching all the exact same things before this post (im not bragging). People were saying I was crazy...thank god someone at least feels the same way as I do.
one other thing you shoulda added though is that the layout size is totally in 4:3 perspective even though all new monitors and laptops are either 16:10 or 16:9, making us widescreen users have even more white space....not that this site is much better about that ;).
if they dont change it back to the old facebook, im deleting my account
Wow, I agree with you 100%. Someone please slap the designers of the "(Gay) New Facebook" in the face and get them to return it to the simple "(Original, Wonderful, Simplistic) Old Facebook".
I really agree with you. The new facebook is not an improvement. Seriously, remember when myspace launched skins? Thats what the new facebook should have done rather than completely space the layout outwards. It makes no sense ( like you said) to have all that random space. Honestly, I dont like the fact facebook is actually making this permanent. More than half of the people on facebook dislike it- they should make the layout an option.
Ugh! Thanks for this post though, it REALLY makes me hate facebook a tad bit more
I hate the new facebook. People just dont like change especially when youve been using it a certain way for so many years. If it aint broke, dont fix it. What was wrong with the old FB. Bring it back.
Good analysis, and great attention to detail. The old look was ok, i just think the most (if not all) part of the redesign was to accommodate advertising.
Once you get investors it only means that you need to start making money so VCs are able to get return on their investment.
Excellent analysis! I have to agree with all your points. Facebook has billions invested into it. I wonder if any of that went into the hiring of real UI designers. Or did it all go into programmers ?
All that blank white space is going to space for banner ads just watch...you not even gona be able to see you page threw all the ads that are gona be on there.
your post is dead on with my problems with the new design. I hate it and wish they would try again with something better.
anyone else notice that they forced everyone to use the new facebook this week, but the URL is a subdomain, which means that either they are keeping the old one just in case, or they are so clueless that they dont know how to migrate with any reliability.
Its falling apart. Heeeeeeeere comes MySpace2.0 uh, er, I mean Facebook, right, they are soooooo different now.
My favorite idiocy of Facebook: in the toplist of tabs theres both a Profile and a Name(e.g. Eva Vesper) tabs that link to the same page. Redundancy and stupidity.
Im also really aggravated with the constant crashing of Facebook 2.0; its extremely unstable.
And I loved the old facebook...
THE NEW FACEBOOK SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE NEW FACEBOOK SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE NEW FACEBOOK SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah well, i just got used to facebook 2.0 and probably thanks to this... thats why they changed it to the THIRD look.
I agree with most of the things on this page, however in some instances it seems youre looking at it from a purely "structural" standpoint and not looking at it from a usability standpoint. For instance youre pointing out the weight distribution. Most users read websites in an "F" pattern, notice they typically stick to the left. So the imbalance is great for usability, especially in showing people where the content, is, and is not.
There are other arguments I could make, for instance in choosing placement of the rounded corners, of the headers, and the shadows. And this can pretty much have an equal argument for usability and its distinctions or directional patterns of user movement. In terms of consistency. This site has a lot of peculiar and or "trendy" inconsistencies. Especially in determining, what is and is not a link, probably the biggest mistake of them all.
On this site, some links are blue, some are pink, some are white, header info I think will be clickable, like say at the top, is not clickable. On the bottom, assuming the header and meta information isnt clickable is incorrect because they "are." This is a much bigger usability offense for consistency than rounded boxes in some spots and not in others.
Completely agree.
We have a blog post about the new facebook, haters have reached around 1 million, if not more.
Be sure to check it out. http://blog.statusbydesign.com/facebook-haters-reach-a-million-strong/
You are SO RIGHT! I like the way youve proved your point! i just dont feel like visiting facebook any more because as a designer, i find it unbearable!! Its very unbalanced and even in terms of content has become too nosy, giving out too many ads and irrelevant info.
Fantastic post! Way to break it down to show Facebooks crappy new look!! It would be nice if they could view this post and make the corrections accordingly!! Good Eye.
If you are tired of facebook but want a way to connect with artists and musicians then you should check out www.putiton.com If you are tired of facebook but still want to connect with your friends then pick up the phone...
@Sam Hamilton - Thats right, theres no social media like the real thing, telephones and faxed etc.
Whoa! Nice analysis of the whole whitespace and weight distribution. Whatever your math here says, maybe correct, but I still feel that the way people perceive a new layout has that human element to it, so you cant be so rigid when talking about something open to interpretation. I personally feel that the newsfeed is better organised, and I can customise it to see only what I want to see.
BTW, what about the new quizzes and apps on Facebook? They are more irritating - http://rutsum.com/facebook-becomes-more-irritating-everyday
I agree with the guys above me (Sam Hamilton and Marc Perel) Whatever happened to human to human contact. Theres a real loss of social capital going on here. People should use the internet to find art and information... not to make friends. So Mr. Hamilton, I will take a look at outiton.com and hopefully find some new talent there. Peace
Who f*cking cares!
At the end of the day - facebook is more popular than your site. Stop whining about little details that dont really mater.
today they updated few thing
Honestly, who cares?
All of these points are being incredibly nit picky. The site is very effective and delivers the content extremely fast and reliable to millions of people daily.
Instead I think the topic should of been ... "How does a site like facebook become effective and keep up its validity through the years?"
nice job ... details really matter!!!
With social media sites my thought is K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Less is more.Functionality is more important than fancy design. I never thought anything was wrong with the old site design. Not sure why they changed it.
Why did they have to change things at Facebook? I understand that updates have to be made but I feel like this was an update in the wrong direction. I understand that the Facebook team was probably itching to change things but they probably should of taken more time to brainstorm. This factor is probably why I dont log into the website as much as I use to.
i wish face book would quit fucking with the system. let us play our mafia wars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Couldnt agree with you more. The new interface is VERY user-unfriendly and I really hope they can change it back.
Absolutely agree. Never used till few weeks back (facebook not my thing at all ;-). Not only that design bad (with their resources) but its not user friendly at all. I wasted several hours before I could figure out what I need to do. I still did not finished everything I wanted but just can not sacrifice time to play with their not friendly layout
Yes, the new design is crap and confusing, but Im not seeing most of the artifacts youve pointed out. Sounds like youre just picking fault for the sake of it...maybe even to get blog traffic, because everyone hates change, right?
Maybe Facebook have rectified the things you have pointed out, becuase I cant see mixed fonts, shadows, rounded edges. It all looks squared off to me, even in Firefox.
All your points are very nit-picky.
Im much more concerned about the three annoying (and useless) buttons in the top left corner, rather than the content being 2px out of place.
Martin x
@Martin - The post was written in 2008 so you wont find any of the new sites features being discussed here ;)
Honestly, no one cares about the inconsistency of the "rounded edges" or "shadows". However, I do agree with you on the new Facebook layout: it sucks. I found the old Facebook so much easier to navigate about, and that is all. The only other fault that I can come up with other than the interference, is that the limit for wallposts is only 420 characters. If anything, it should be unlimited because I cant see why they make it to such a strict character limit.
Thanks for a well written article!
Thought I am the only person who thinks FB sucks&.
The way they operate reminds me of the Nazi and we all know how that ended&
I care about sloppy pixel counting in design. If you mess up by a pixel here, and then another there...then there... there would be no point in even trying to line anything up or designing this or that. Just put it in a blender and mix it up.
Also...people do care about inconsistency of rounded edges and poorly utilized shadows. Compare it to car design. A car with random curves would like quite odd. If you are either blind or have some crappy small monitor, the retarded rounded edges might not matter. Design is what sets apart the great and the good products. Apple products suck, but they look good (usually?) doing it at least.
FB did have technical flaws as pointed out. It was and still is difficult to navigate. This article just happened to put emphasis on some fundamental design techniques. In all honesty, most of the "amateur" designers out there ignore exactly all the things written here. This article is perfect for the budding new artist.
Relax, enjoy the critique.
I have had some ugly facebook experiences ... I started to get really pissed off ... then I decided to start a forum about it and instead of pissed off, I got FacedOff.com ... a forum of likes and gripes for those who love/hate facebook (mostly gripes)
It pisses me off so much, I've already deactivated my account.
Facebook sucks! It transforms perfectly nice people you know in real life into attention-seeking, narcissistic, self-centred, egotistical idiots. Its always about me, me and me . The collective IQ of a facebook wall comments list must be in single digits. I never gained any productive information from that place.
It was annoying to read comments from those self-absorbed idiots in Facebook: I did some holiday shopping , Im getting married in December , I love the author who wrote the Alchemist&whats his name again? &fuck off, idiot Im not interested to do what youre doing in your neck of the woods. However, I dont blame them for their silly posts. After all, if I meet them in person, theyll be talking the same. Its just that I would rather tolerate your small talk in my direct presence than in Facebook first thing in the morning.
As soon as things came to a head, I simply decided to delete half my contacts, except most of the beautiful girls! I guess I can put up with some of their shit. Only, beautiful girls are allowed to stay in my profile. I generally avoid any new male contacts except 3-4 really close friends coz 1) the others are mostly lame and 2) they talk gay and 3) I never connected with them anyway despite spending several years with those same people in various walks of life.
I also generally avoid commenting on someones wall posts. Not that it isnt worth commenting on sometimes. But, I hate the torrent of follow-up comments in my contacts wall (lamer, each one than the rest) from people I never knew or if I knew them, hated those assholes with all my guts. I have also re-adjusted my Facebook settings so I dont get annoying emails when some idiot decides to add me on Facebook or send some message or replied to a wall post 2 years back!
As of now, I have at least 16 pending friend requests from undesirable idiots who I actually hated in the past! I dont want to wake up in the morning to see their fucking faces for the rest of my life.
Lastly, I have also limited the amount of time spent on Facebook. Even six months back, I used to waste 4 hours a day on that gay site. Today, I check my account once in three days or even 2 weeks!
The world was a happier place before that idiot son of a bitch called Mark Zuckerberg decided to create Facebook. Relationships were more meaningful and people were more genuine.
And, I hate this Facebook-addict generation. Either get out and meet me in real, or just fuck off! I dont need you in my life.
I miss the old FaceBook I have got used so much to - the new one does not only lacks proper management and is sloppy, it is also overloaded with unnecessary applications and invitations to them and things alike, so it's hard to find the basic features sometimes.