Facebook’s updated News Feed design has officially been rolled out however, the design is nothing like what Facebook had originally planned.
When Facebook began rolling out their new design many people commented that it looked very similar to the old, original News Feed.
Over a year ago, Facebook originally launched plans to make feeds much more colorful and photo friendly however the plans were scrapped at the last minute due to “technical difficulties.”
“While I have sharp, stunning super high resolution 27 inch monitors, many more people in the world do not,” stated (or boasted) Julie Zhuo, Facebook’s design director. “Low res small screens are much more common across the world.”
Seeing their new layout on a smaller screen not only had less impact but some of the screens cut off the images and resulted in a worse experience for many.
“These people may not be early adopters or use the same hardware we do, but the quality of their experience matters just as much,” continued Zhuo.
Despite the social media giant claiming that they were thinking of the greater population, many have accused Facebook of revoking the design because it generated less ad revenue.
One blogger stated, “it was performing so well from a design standpoint that users no longer felt the need to browse areas outside of the News Feed as often, so they were spending less time on the site. Unfortunately, this change in user behavior led to fewer advertisement impressions, which led, ultimately, to less revenue.”
Zhuo commented on these statements claiming that the new design was actually better for ad revenue but that Facebook cared more about user experience.
“This isn’t about short-term metrics versus long-term value. This is about designing something that works for the hundreds of millions of people who use the Facebook website every day, from all over the world, on all types of computers,” she wrote.
What do you think of the recently updated Facebook design?