Facebook Redesign Leaves Users Perplexed

Since late July, growing numbers of Facebook users have logged into their accounts and found profiles that they haven’t recognized. The confusion was not the work of identity thieves, but Facebook’s own developers, who unveiled a major redesign to the site.

According to its creators, “New Facebook” was designed to make the users experience easier, but for the biggest fans of what is now “Old Facebook,” the change is another one of the social networking Web site’s recent mistakes.

Isidore M.T. Bethel ’11, a self-proclaimed “power-user,” was not happy by the change.

“I logged into my Facebook, and it looked terrible. It looked like a tundra,” he said of the new interface, which is significantly wider and bluer.

In the early stages of its launch, Facebook users were able to opt in and out of the new layout. The switch became mandatory and permanent last week.Chief among Bethel’s many complaints was the amount of work he suddenly had to do in order to navigate the Web site.

“I had to drag from one corner to another to get from Facebook notes to my profile, for example,” he recalled.

“In protest, I deactivated my account on the spot,”

Not all students are as incensed about the redesign as Bethel.

“I didn’t like it at first,” said Christian L. Garland ’10, “but then after using it I found that it was cleaner, more efficient, and less cluttered. Like a good vacuum.”

His advice to peers who aren’t as happy is simple: “Get over it.”

Justin Smith of InsideFacebook.com, a blog that covers the company, said he views New Facebook as a definite improvement for application developers, whose products are now able to publish updates directly on users’ profiles.

“The profile page is becoming one big feed that shows your activity on the site,” he said. “People can now learn about you based on what you’ve been doing instead of what you write yourself.”

In exchange for more space in the main feed, most applications have been moved off of the main profile page. A developer himself, Smith isn’t worried that users will be discouraged from taking the extra step to use applications.

“I think it’s good because it’s a cleaner ecosystem,” he said, “and the bad applications are falling away while the higher quality applications are sticking around.”

Bethel said he recognizes some of the benefits to New Facebook, but he remains unhappy. He has a brief message for the developer responsible: “When you make new things, you’re supposed to make them better,” he said. “You didn’t do that, my friend.”

–Staff writer Charleton A. Lamb can be reached at clamb@fas.harvard.edu.