Facebook’s Upcoming Facelift
Posted by Petrice Gaskin at May. 22, 2008
Yesterday, tech blogs scattered far and wide ooh-ed and ah-ed as Facebook released screenshots for its upcoming profile redesign—set to launch in a couple of weeks. Facebook is hoping this redesign will address the concern that in all its post-app glory Facebook profiles have started to appear a tad cluttered with penguin eggs, pirates, and ninjas. They’ve opted to introduce tabs that will allow users to view the functions that they wish to see.
I was a Myspace straggler and despite the numerous invites I received from friends to come join Facebook, I took my sweet time signing up. When I did, the Facebook I saw was just as (though I might argue more) cluttered as Myspace, despite the claims of many that they had gravitated to Facebook to escape the sparkly, pink, Youtube-storm that Myspace had devolved into. However, I prefer Myspace’s clutter to Facebook’s. At this point the clutter you see adorning a Myspace page is indicative of the user’s personality—they chose that pink cross-and-skulls background, they chose to feature that Family Guy snippet from Youtube. On Facebook, vampires and knights don’t actually say very much about the user—other than indicating that she has enough free time on her hands to contemplate what type of medieval royalty she is.
Facebook’s makeover is timely and is a good step towards soothing users who’ve become agitated with impersonal apps sprawling across their profiles.
I was a Myspace straggler and despite the numerous invites I received from friends to come join Facebook, I took my sweet time signing up. When I did, the Facebook I saw was just as (though I might argue more) cluttered as Myspace, despite the claims of many that they had gravitated to Facebook to escape the sparkly, pink, Youtube-storm that Myspace had devolved into. However, I prefer Myspace’s clutter to Facebook’s. At this point the clutter you see adorning a Myspace page is indicative of the user’s personality—they chose that pink cross-and-skulls background, they chose to feature that Family Guy snippet from Youtube. On Facebook, vampires and knights don’t actually say very much about the user—other than indicating that she has enough free time on her hands to contemplate what type of medieval royalty she is.
Facebook’s makeover is timely and is a good step towards soothing users who’ve become agitated with impersonal apps sprawling across their profiles.