I’m not sure; I just joined Facebook two weeks ago and the UI seems opaque at best. Streamlining things so they’re in more logical places and easier to find would be helpful.

Jeff –

It is different, but I do not that it is terrible. The current UI is a mess. This new, streamlined view organizes things better.

But I am merely a casual user of Facebook.

I found having everything on one Facebook page to be too much. Pages took long to load and information was in different places. The new design chops things up into more accessible chunks.

Hey Doug,

I don’t agree that the current UI is a mess, but I’ve become something of a heavy user, so much in the same way that I knew how to get around Word (before the ribbon), things just worked for me. I think I grant that the UI is a mess, with the caveat that it’s my mess, or, rather, a mess that I’ve built up a lot of habits around. If the layout really is usable in some way that I don’t currently see, I still get the feeling that I’m not going to enjoy learning something new.

Take the QWERTY keyboard layout, for example, it’s specifically designed to be as inconvenient as possible, but it’s become the standard, and not many people are switching over DVORAK. Given that I don’t want to make a “well it’s a fact of life” argument, I’m still really not a fan of the new design on aesthetic grounds.

Noooo!!!! As an avid Facebook user, I really hate when Facebook changes things up and moves things around. At least for someone who visits the site daily, the UI is quite intuitive and easy to maneuver and major changes are not welcome. Of course, I’m no UI expert, but I am a Facebook expert. I’m not looking forward to have to tab through someone’s info rather than have it plainly visible. I see this as a way for Facebook to increase click-throughs and page visits in an effort to generate more ad revenue. Rant over.

Facebook’s current design wasn’t built for the loads of Facebook applications that now litter most pages. Unfortunately for developers, the app boxes are now on a separate page.

The most active content on Facebook is the wall, and they’ve integrated it with the newsfeed, which then connects you to other updated content.

The new design is better focused, and will load much faster without having to pull application content.

Thusenth: Yeah, this does shunt applications away (which the devs might not appreciate, though I certainly will), but when was the last time you actually read someone elses wall as opposed to just their minifeed?

I continue to be intrigued by what the cat said that deemed it worthy of being fuzzed out.

[...] 10:40am If you logged onto Facebook this morning, you may have noticed the new interface that we wrote about a couple of weeks ago. What’s really exciting though, is what’s going on behind the [...]

There are a few arguments for, but many against the new layout. As one who has used both now (and given the new a fair chance), I can easily state that the new layout is far less logical. Perhaps having so much of ones personal information displayed on the one page didn’t jive with some users tastes, but I can assure you it was straight forward and practical. This modification is purely aimed at adverstisers wellbeing. I’ve not yet met anyone that prefers the new layout. Based solely on the numbers of complaints circulating Google, one would think that management would sit up and take note. Not so. Shame on you Facebook.