I have always been a great fan of great UI (User Interface). For those who are not familiar with this term, UI basically means an interface through which users will communicate with system. Better the UI, easier the product usage.
For web products, its essential to have a great UI because you need to show your users as many features as possible, without confusing them. Facebook, has always been appraised for its engaging and continuously evolving UI. Over past few years, Facebook has changed the way we use any website. Be it use of 'Stream', 'Notifications' or 'Like' & 'Comment' features, Facebook has always been leader of creating fantastic and simple page designs for its users. Over the years, users have changed their internet usage habits as per Facebook's UI and competitors have followed (read: copied) Facebook's innovations.
I have monitored these changes over the period of several years and this observation came last week when I was doing some regular stuff on my Facebook account. While managing my Facebook ads and browsing through some stories on my wall, this seemingly 'simple' & 'pathbreaking' Facebook UI appeared as 'dumb' and 'confusing'! Just check below image with my observations:
For web products, its essential to have a great UI because you need to show your users as many features as possible, without confusing them. Facebook, has always been appraised for its engaging and continuously evolving UI. Over past few years, Facebook has changed the way we use any website. Be it use of 'Stream', 'Notifications' or 'Like' & 'Comment' features, Facebook has always been leader of creating fantastic and simple page designs for its users. Over the years, users have changed their internet usage habits as per Facebook's UI and competitors have followed (read: copied) Facebook's innovations.
I have monitored these changes over the period of several years and this observation came last week when I was doing some regular stuff on my Facebook account. While managing my Facebook ads and browsing through some stories on my wall, this seemingly 'simple' & 'pathbreaking' Facebook UI appeared as 'dumb' and 'confusing'! Just check below image with my observations:
(Click on image to enlarge)
- My current Facebook home screen looks something like above and as you can see, most of data I am presented with is either useless or not relevant for me.
- Facebook advertisements & sponsored stories covers almost 60% of screen and I'm sure not going to like those promotions every time.
- I do face trouble at times, finding what's going viral in my network. I seldom see those updates on my screen.... it's either hidden somewhere in long stream queue or I have to click on 'News feeed' or 'photos' etc. to find it.
- Live feed ticker initially generated lot of interest, however I am not interested in what my 2nd or 3rd degree friends are doing in their own network
- Chat feature is surely helpful. However, Facebook's latest algorithm shows me those friends whom I have recently interacted with. Not every time I want to talk to them... right?
- I guess, extreme left column is most important me because it helps me navigate through various Pages & advertisements I manage. This is the only 'useful' place on my Facebook home screen.
- On left bottom corner, I see links to my Groups & Apps. I hardly use those and do not wish to go to home pages of these groups / apps.
- On right top corner, I see birthday reminder and it's actually very helpful! Every day, I wish my friends birthday... not sure, how many of them actually reads it.
- Some app & game requests appearing below it just doesn't mean anything for me. Waste of space and time, I guess.
- So, except top status bar (notification icons, my profile & log out buttons) and left side bar navigation links, everything else is either promoted crap or irrelevant content for me.
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