Sanpixee The Alien: Facebook’s Crappy New Design
March 19, 2009 at 7:03 pm (Social Networking) (facebook, graphic user interface, gui, interface, myspace, social network, Social Networking, twitter, ui)
It may be for the advertising dollars, it may be for the ease of of programming and managing data, whatever it is – it is not user friendly. Many of us hardened facebookers joined when we were idealistic college students intent on connecting with our friends. We drank the mostly user generated content like kool-aid and seamlessly integrated facebook into our daily routines like coffee and late night snacks. It was a new and improved version of its predecessor Friendster, more organized and relevant then Hi-5 and was free of the overcrowding of creepy, tasteless, bathroom pictures of MySpace.
Over the years the ‘book has been tweaked and prodded with numerous cries of anguish and lashing outs and groups formed to organize boycotts. All backlash did nothing to hinder Facebook’s Blob-like ability to gobble up more and more users from different countries, income brackets, ethnicities and persuasions.
However, the most recent overhaul has destroyed Facebook’s appeal. The new Facebook that premiered in the last week is Twitter-esque in layout and is structured in a way to prod, push and force users to view and comment on content which is way too structured and streamlined for a generation used to control what theuir eyes see, what their ears hear and when and what they type. This updated layout is too neat, too slick and too organized for a go-green-all-for-equality generation.
All in all, it smacks of corporate America. With this new layout’s glossy sheen us users are crammed with more people’s inane thoughts than video, pictures etc. This new facebook is boring and many users are complaining that it is not a layout which encourages anonymous exploration. This ability to anonymously explore and manipulate data is a key component of facebook’s popularity and its addictive quality. By taking away the user’s drive to explore to click and hyperlink their way, ooohing and aahing throughout the information labyrinth that is Facebook, it is fast becoming just another social networking site.
I could say bring back the old interface, but I am a user, with not so many rights. I am not an advertiser and I am using faceboook’s services for free.
But heck I will try it anyways – Bring back the old interface!…. please?!
