Information Architect's 2006 Facebook redesigns | Hacker News Reader

Information Architect's 2006 Facebook redesigns

informationarchitects.jp

35 pointsslater14 comments

I don't like it. The new Facebook design centers around the search bar for a reason. I'm sure Facebook designers tracked user behavior and gathered that the search bar should be more in focus. This redesign botches this concept completely. Information design !> usability design. Also, the distance you have to move your eyes left to right to read this is a readability issue. Basically, you have to work way too hard to read this and do what you want to do. That's my 2c.

The search issue is almost definitely a non issue, and an oversight on the part of iA. Just moving it to the top placement in the left hand column would give it almost the same placement it has on the real Facebook today.

Yes it is! As the parent comment said, the new design it's search focused with solid reasons behind it. Most people I know do basically 2 things on Facebook:

1. Search friends, or suggested names constantly. And the new layout focuses exactly on this.

2. Chat. (During chat: "do you know X Y?" -> 1, "saw person X with Z G" -> (if don't know) -> 1)

Disclosure: I usually don't use Facebook (just to connect with old friends, sometimes).

So you're saying

"I don't use facebook but I am sure they did their research, therefore it's perfect as it is."

Seriously? The reason why the search is on the bottom is exactly because I thought that

1. Facebook follows the push (feed/mail) paradigm and not the pull (search) paradigm 2. Search in a feed application is a form of filtering (if user testing shows that people miss it, you can still place it under the logo) 3. I do use facebook but I don't use the search because a) so far it has nnever shown me good results and b) it's not clear to me what kind of results it is supposed to show (my stuff, all of facebook...)

I didn't say I don't use it, I said I don't use it everyday.

I didn't say "it's perfect as it is". I said there are good reasons why the Facebook team moved in that direction.

Only because you don't use search doesn't mean no one is. I said most of the people I know, use it to find people they know. If they want to see what is someone doing, they don't go trough their friend list (referrer volume), but they search directly the name (search volume). In this case the search volume is bigger than the referrer one. Find ways to make it easier for users to search.

I think Facebook employs in part some of the Google paradigms in UX.

Totally agree. But we should remember that back in 2006, the search bar for Facebook was on the left sidebar similar to the iA design.

Its not for everyone, but bearing in mind this was created in 2006 it shows a very progressive thought - especially when you think on how Facebook looked back then.

I disagree that "move(ing) your eyes left to right to read this is a readability issue"... well, the basic action of reading (for most languages such as English) is to do exactly that.

It's the horizontal distance that is the problem. This redesign takes the information from the Newsfeed and spreads it across the entire page. If you want to read comments you have to travel horizontally and then go back to read the next item in the feed. That is a pretty big readability nuisance.

But yeah, this is from 2006. I like the branding on the left sidebar. I just happen to not be a fan of the layout mostly.

Ah, yes - now that you've clarified it, that makes more sense

I could see it working well. Overall, there's a good sense of balance and flow, but my main concern would be the transition between the each-post detail mode and the single-post detail mode of the right column. The arrows and shading don't quite seem to express the change in linking readily enough; I'd suggest a more pronounced visual differentiation between the two.

Brilliant design, but it doesn't seem like it would degrade very gracefully for lower resolutions.

The second and third columns provide a lot of collapsible space depending on the browser width, no?

Yes, but either the comments wouldn't be visible in low-resolution clients or facebook would have to provide a completely different layout (e.g. with inline comments) for them.

Outlook has basically proved this interface works well and I think it could be applied to other conversation types like Facebook. As in Outlook, making this an option would be cool.

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