The staff that works for Facebook never seems to be content with the layout of the insanely popular site, for it is constantly being altered. As soon as I get used to the nuances of a new layout, it changes yet again! On top of that, the changes are always followed up by flood of status updates from friends expressing their disgust the modifications. Within a week however, most have adjusted and no longer complain.
Well, it’s about to happen again. The current design is projected to become a thing of the past, while the new “timeline” layout takes over. Some have been using the new layout for quite some time already to test it out and give feedback. In the article linked to this post, Nick Bilton writes that he feels “as if it highlights me in a way that gives me borderline Digital Narcissistic Personality Disorder”, claiming that the colossal amount and sheer size of the images of his face plastered about the site is a bit unsettling. His advice for Facebook? “For Timeline to work, Facebook will need to tone “me” down a notch, and instead highlight my friends on the social network.”
It’ll be interesting to see if any major changes are implemented before the layout is available to all Facebook users and what the general consensus is.
Interesting article! It’s funny how often the company seems to change Facebook and how every time, the users seem to complain. The concept that they described does seem slightly narcissistic and uncomfortable to constantly look at, so it should be interesting to see how users react if it is indeed implemented. One thing that I also thought was interesting was the inspiration behind the design; the work of designer Nicholas Felton. At the end of the article, author Nick Bilton mentions an interview with Felton, who chronicled “the esoteric intricacies of each day” and then shared this information out of “mathematical curiosity”. He wasn’t interested in sharing every little thing about himself, but sharing the curiosity of numbers in our daily lives. Bilton’s response to this was that most people don’t share that same “mathematical curiosity”, and thus may not agree with the change in layout. I’m curious to see when/if they implement this change and how everyone will respond.
