Facebook provides more redesign details

by Juan Carlos Peréz

May 22, 2008 —

Facebook is disclosing
more details about the planned redesign for its core member profile pages, as
it attempts to regain the layout's orderly, streamlined look that had been one
of its trademarks and a differentiator from competitors like MySpace.

The latest plans in Facebook's ongoing redesign efforts call for profile pages
to evolve from a single repository of content and applications into a tabbed
interface.

The goal is to let users organize in these tabbed sub-pages the various components
of their profiles, such as the activity feed, photos, personal information and
applications.

Facebook members can see the latest screenshots in this album
and view this
video of a presentation held Wednesday by company officials about the redesign
plans.

At the event, Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of product marketing,
explained that the interface changes are intended to make profiles cleaner and
simpler and give users more control over their look and feel, and emphasize
the most recent and relevant information.

"We need to take a step forward with respect to the user experience and
the UI that we present to the consumer because the amount of information that's
being created both passively and proactively is increasing," he said.

No doubt this is due to Facebook's membership explosive growth and the company's
decision a year ago to let external developers create applications for the site.
Facebook currently has about 70 million members and about 20,000 applications.

Still Facebook must be careful about how its redesign affects a member's experience,
as in the past some of its changes have riled users and industry observers.

The activity feed feature was blasted by users as violating their privacy,
as was the Beacon ad program that broadcast online transactions made by Facebook's
users to their friends list.

Already, there have been some early grumblings among external developers concerned
that the redesigned profile page will steal visibility from their applications.

But Palihapitiya argued that the redesign will do the opposite rather, and
generate instead "a more meaningful engagement with users" for applications
by offering new integration opportunities in the profiles.

Facebook plans to let developers and members test the redesign before launching
it formally next month.

IDG News Service