Posted by
Alexander Koby on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 9:43:00 PM
So, this is the future of Facebook? My first question is, "Seriously?" Followed by, "Will this 'new' layout become the 'only' layout?" After being hyped for so long, I was truly expecting something with flair, pizzazz, and dare I say -- personality. The layout feels more awkward than Vista, and colder than the CIA mainframe -- this, black and blue scatter plot. Change for change sake is not the same as innovation.
For example, why did the developers think that restacking birthdays is more user-friendly? Shouldn't "Today" and "Tomorrow" remain above a person's name? Next, is it just me or did the Font get smaller again? Sheesh, I need everyday glasses, reading glasses and now -- Facebook glasses... Actually the Font is the same, however, there's just more white-space than ever before; makeing the site feel overly wordy in some places and barren in others. The old version in its compact state was cleaner, more to the point -- despite the clutter of Applications.
I never liked Mini-Feed to begin with, but now, it has been jumbled with Wall posts. Despite being separated with silver backgrounds, having to sift through every single action or update, or continually having to click the "Posts by Others" filter, is tedious.
Why have all Friends been dumped into one grouping? This seems to defeat the purpose of being in a specific network or selecting a primary network. The ability to select "Top Friends" isn't exactly new, but it's a handy feature. Though, I do like having the ability to hide the "Friends in Other Networks" list. It also seems that we no longer have the ability to rearrange boxes or collapse them, thus adding to the "never-ending scroll." From here, the list just goes on, and on, and onward still...
In summary, the Facebook techies need to go back to the drawing board and start collaborating with those trendy right-brained Apple artists and hopefully roll out with a more eye-pleasing skin next quarter.
In the meantime -- Stick with the classics, stick with what works.
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(a.k. 08.05.08)