3 ms·

Isn't this sentiment true every time Facebook makes changes to their UI? There's always some user backlash immediately following its release, but after a few we

by btn 15y ago

Isn't this sentiment true every time Facebook makes changes to their UI? There's always some user backlash immediately following its release, but after a few weeks everything settles and returns to the status quo. I have no doubt that Facebook extensively tests their changes to the UI features with a focus on how much more time people spend on Facebook. For example, the lightbox photo UI was panned as being confusing and slow, but brings in an extra billion (+5%) photo views a day [1]. While 48% of teens claim that they try to ignore or see no real value in the ticker, I bet that a large chunk of them are clicking on it (whether they consciously want to or not). [1]: https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/developing-facebooks-new-photo-viewer/499447633919 https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/developi...

Figs 15y ago
> For example, the lightbox photo UI was panned as being confusing and slow, but brings in an extra billion (+5%) photo views a day [1]. If the interface is confusing, then it sounds like those extra billion image views a day were probably accidental -- which would simply mean wasted bandwidth (and money) for Facebook. Unless those extra image views somehow also produced additional ad impressions for Facebook or something like that, then I'm not sure why they'd consider having to serve up more images a success if people were happier using the old system...
- jcitme 15y ago
  Lock in. If they become the platform of choice, they would be better off than a bit more server costs in the short term.
henrikschroder 15y ago
It's somewhat amusing to see these surveys and articles by people who don't really understand the Gatekeeper system that Facebook uses for deployment and the vast amounts of data they collect about user behaviour. Facebook can do test rollouts of features to specific segments of their users and exactly measure the impact. In comparison, making a survey gives you crap data that tells you nothing about how the usage patterns of Facebook will change. Because what people say they will do and what they actually do are two different things, and Facebook keeps very quiet about the actual patterns. Sometimes though you can infer that announced features actually wasn't a success. They'll just be quietly rolled back or changed or never rolled out to the entire userbase. What happened to Timeline, for example?

by btn 15y ago

Figs 15y ago

> For example, the lightbox photo UI was panned as being confusing and slow, but brings in an extra billion (+5%) photo views a day [1]. If the interface is confusing, then it sounds like those extra billion image views a day were probably accidental -- which would simply mean wasted bandwidth (and money) for Facebook. Unless those extra image views somehow also produced additional ad impressions for Facebook or something like that, then I'm not sure why they'd consider having to serve up more images a success if people were happier using the old system...

jcitme 15y ago
Lock in. If they become the platform of choice, they would be better off than a bit more server costs in the short term.

henrikschroder 15y ago

It's somewhat amusing to see these surveys and articles by people who don't really understand the Gatekeeper system that Facebook uses for deployment and the vast amounts of data they collect about user behaviour. Facebook can do test rollouts of features to specific segments of their users and exactly measure the impact. In comparison, making a survey gives you crap data that tells you nothing about how the usage patterns of Facebook will change. Because what people say they will do and what they actually do are two different things, and Facebook keeps very quiet about the actual patterns. Sometimes though you can infer that announced features actually wasn't a success. They'll just be quietly rolled back or changed or never rolled out to the entire userbase. What happened to Timeline, for example?