Ask HN: Thoughts on the new FB layout?

by nav on 9/21/2011, 4:29 AM with 13 comments
  • by anon-e-moose on 9/21/2011, 5:07 AM

    Hate it. I was always annoyed when I had to switch from Top News to Most Recent, and now I don't have a choice. The addition of random visual embellishments like blue corners and 3d borders takes away from readability and scan-ability.

    Also I can't imagine why I would want a side feed of people commenting on people who I'm not even friend's with photos. This violates peoples expectations of Facebook.

    So good job guys, you broke your core product. This is just what you need to defeat Twitter and Google Plus.

    Edit: I just noticed they stapled the real time feed to the buddy list, halving it. So now I can see even less of the buddy list (the one they broke last month) at once.

  • by ericmsimons on 9/21/2011, 5:19 AM

    Initially, I'm always opposed to changes on FB, but it usually grows on me after a while. I didn't like how they released a slew of updates all at once tonight; I think in the future they should gradually roll out big changes like these.

  • by codyguy on 9/21/2011, 7:50 AM

    New layout? Didn't notice it because I haven't logged in for more than a year and not missing it at all.

  • by high5ths on 9/21/2011, 4:42 AM

    Their layout gets busier and busier with each iteration. I can't claim to love all of it, although some of the changes might make reading easier -- like the thin horizontal lines between comments, or larger in-line image previews.

  • by Thomaschaaf on 9/21/2011, 7:12 AM

    Would you guys mind uploading a couple screenshots? I don't have the new design.

  • by sandipagr on 9/21/2011, 5:18 AM

    I like the look and feel of most of the changes but I really wish they didn't have fixed width layout for all screen sizes.

  • by abbasmehdi on 9/28/2011, 6:18 AM

    Facebook has lost me. I need something clean and simple. That it's not.

  • by Tangaroa on 9/21/2011, 6:35 AM

    I stopped using Facebook a week or two ago when they started putting an opaque overlay over the entire page to direct my attention to a popup box that said nothing interesting and had no apparent way of closing it, no [X] in the corner. If that's a feature of the new layout, I already hate it even though I haven't been able to see the new layout.

    A hint to UI developers: if your proposed user interface feature resembles something that porn sites did in the 1990s which users found so obnoxious that browser developers rewrote their products to disallow it, because disabling your feature would gain the browser many additional users, don't do it.