Facebook have launched a design for the site and there is a mirror site showing off a re-designed facebook. you can access your own facebook page by logging on to http://new.facebook.com. Its easy and you can switch back if you don’t like it.
I think the initial goal of the re-design was to stop those annoying applications taking up so much space vertically on the page thus no ideal positions to place ads. We all have friends that install everything and decide to open up their friend lists and information to any tom, dick and harry that can develop something using the facebook api. So those people might benefit by allowing people navigate their profile a little better.
Here’s some changes I found
- Ads are clearer and more visable as ads. Before FB ads got mixed up witht he profiles, now it seems to be a bit more of a clearer design.
- There are a series of tabs along the top where you can create sections of your profile, quite a useful feature. However i HATE how some tabs make the profile picture and contact details columns different, some how this goes against most usabilty standards for websites … hope they fix it soon.
- The site is now optimised to a 1026×768 resolution, which is ok but personally I like 800×600 optimised websites (like the bbc) that have a narrow page width, i find it faster to read and easier to scan with my eyes for stuff I need to read. I like scroll wheels
- Font is now bigger and the padding around the different sections are wider. I don’t like this … its just too much white space for me. adds lot of glare.
So there are some plus and some minus points so check it out and see what you think
