Facebook gets its new face

          Widely loved by many social-network users, Facebook is now going to have its new face with fresh and well-organized user interface which was their main business driven factor earlier days. According to the Executives, the newly designed Facebook will launch in next few weeks which about 70 million worldwide users will be using it from now on.

          This decision was due to its over-crowded users posting millions of profiles, and due to its quite disorganized design, users couldn't get the information a hundred percent clearly. Therefore, the new design's main concept is targeting simplification. All the functions of the current Facebook - personal information, photos, the news, and comments will probably have different tabs or pages respectively, making users to clearly define their information.

          Facebook has been criticized for being more like MySpace lately for having few ads and banners on the web and creating the messy kind of look because Facebook had been well known for its neat and well organized interface. That's why the new design team had set up to solve this problem. - "differentiation"

          This project was based on a part of the $20 million investment from Microsoft last October. Due to its rapid growing - U.S. membership has jumped 71% since last March - the new design must keep up with potential customers as well.

          I think the main concern for this dramatic change is this: Now, the designers have to listen to the users, not the users who have to follow what the designers have already made. Because of its powerful force of users, Facebook must listen to their users carefully and adopt what they really looking for as much as possible. Also, redesigning does not guarantee that it's being differentiated from other similar service providers. When the firm creates a new feature or function, it should be seriously considered the "what if" factors as well. In that way, I believe they can create the "win-win" situation for both parties. Sometimes people do not need too many things. They just want to see and do what they really need to do; not the side dishes you think they would also like to enjoy.

Vella, Mett. "Facebook's Big Facelift" Business Week. May 14, 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id20080514_205389.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

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