New Facebook? Old Facebook?

Who thought that a simple change in Facebook could lead to an uproar of millions of Facebook users?

Figure 1 : Facebook protest petition

Source : Facebook

Facebook launched a new face lift in 2008, causing more than100 million facebook users fuming over the change. A petition against the new Facebook was launched by Scott Sanders, a student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and has more than 1.5 million names. (CNN, 2008)

“Life is about to change, but I like good change, not crappy change… the changes are horrible” Nikki Gerwel, a Facebook user wrote in a “Who hates the new Facebook format” forum. (TheAustralian, 2008)

Figure 2 : Old Facebook

Source : 352media.com

Figure 3 : New Facebook

Source : cnet.news

The large number of protestors against the new Facebook face-lift proves that audience acceptance of document design is vital in the field of document design. Schriver ( 1996 ) states that people are extremely knowledge-driven and text-driven when it comes to interpreting texts or documents. The new Facebook face-lift pushes Facebook users out of their comfort zone. The new Facebook brings unfamiliarity and distaste to old users as they have already been so used to the old Facebook.

According to Armano (2008), sites like this have evolved depending on how people want to use them, but Facebook – considering its large amount of traffic, may need to slow down and formalize its process. Fahey (2008) states that a designer's job is to interpret carefully what may lie behind even cantankerous feedback. I believe in Web 2.0, majority of users think that it is ‘their’ site. Thus, document designers have to be cautious about what users want to see, rather than throwing in a new face-lift that causes uproar among them.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that any change can be a big deal to our users because this is how they connect with family and friends, so when you move things around, it can be perceived as being not a positive thing even when it is a positivie chance. (BBC News, 2008)

Figure 4 : Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook

Source : Foxnews.com

References

1. Australian IT 2008, 'Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming', Australian IT, viewed 115^thJune 2009, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html>
2. BBC News, 2008, ‘Facebook imposes site facelift’, BBC News, viewed 15^th June 2009, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7609555.stm >
3. Businessweek, 2008, ‘Facebook’s big facelift’, Businessweek.com, viewed 15^th June 2009, < http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2008/id20080514_205389_page_2.htm >
4. CNN, 2008, ‘Users protest, defend Facebook face-lift’, CNN.com, viewed 15h June 2009, < http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/22/facebook.facelift/index.html >
5. Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.