5 ms·

I have to say that after being an app developer on Facebook...

32 points by twampss 18y ago

ableal 18y ago
I'm sorry, but does that page say anything ? All I saw was solid black with some dark gray smudges ... It's about design, you say ? Curious ...
- ableal 18y ago
  (Thanks for changing the theme, Matt. I'll send you the bill for the points I got docked here for the snark ;-) Well, now that I read it, I might as well comment: fine, keeping still kills you. But the Google-leaving Douglas Bowman hit the nail: you can either hope a designer does an Apple-class job, or you take the stolid measure-twice, cut-once engineering approach. And it's a matter of company DNA. Plus, what if the designer lands you with dark-grey-on-black ?
jacoblyles 18y ago
Is there a way they could test improvements without pushing them on 150 million users? I have to imagine they already have some internal testing process. What's a good practice? Also, Matt, love the new site theme. I think I've been convinced to finally give up white on black (Except for my terminal. It'll be a cold day in hell before those design nazis convince me to change the colors on my terminal).
- aaronblohowiak 18y ago
  For partial roll-outs, A/B testing for features and more, check out http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/ http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Well, the problem isn't the scope. The test would have just told them that a lot of people would complain they didn't like it, which they probably already knew. A lot of people will do that with a good change or a bad one. What they need to find out is if it will make their site into something bigger in the long run, the way the mini feed and such did. I don't really see how you can test that, because you're looking for something that is at best hard to quantify and at worst impossible.
markm 18y ago
Leave it to Matt to always go against the grain of conventional wisdom. I definitely agree that Facebook has balls pulling out this redesign but I do not agree that the design is for the better. My thoughts on the new facebook homepage: http://blog.clutterme.com/2009/03/thoughts-on-new-facebook-homepage.html http://blog.clutterme.com/2009/03/thoughts-on-new-facebook-h... * It's going to stink for apps. * Facebook is killing its own page views On the converse side, the redesign is a definite upper for brands and the visibility of their pages: Mashable talks about some of the effects that the redesign has had on its Facebook Page, http://mashable.com/2009/03/19/new-facebook-brands/ http://mashable.com/2009/03/19/new-facebook-brands/
- swombat 18y ago
  * It's going to stink for apps. Apps stunk for the user experience anyway. They were an experiment gone horribly wrong.
- whughes 18y ago
  Would you consider a pageview decrease a downside? Even though they may lose some ad revenue (I don't know the details), their bandwidth costs may dip a bit, and ads aren't their real path to monetization anyway. I'm not sure it really matters as much to their long-term vision as apps.
kcy 18y ago
Would it be impossible for webapps to just have different interface versions always available? Like if I really liked something about the very first release, I should be able to roll back to that version and use that. We should all be able to use the interface that we like the most and upgrade as we see fit.
- omouse 18y ago
  It's possible but you have to jump through quite a few hoops to do it. The web isn't built for this unfortunately...

32 points by twampss 18y ago

I'm sorry, but does that page say anything ? All I saw was solid black with some dark gray smudges ... It's about design, you say ? Curious ...

ableal 18y ago
(Thanks for changing the theme, Matt. I'll send you the bill for the points I got docked here for the snark ;-) Well, now that I read it, I might as well comment: fine, keeping still kills you. But the Google-leaving Douglas Bowman hit the nail: you can either hope a designer does an Apple-class job, or you take the stolid measure-twice, cut-once engineering approach. And it's a matter of company DNA. Plus, what if the designer lands you with dark-grey-on-black ?

jacoblyles 18y ago

Is there a way they could test improvements without pushing them on 150 million users? I have to imagine they already have some internal testing process. What's a good practice? Also, Matt, love the new site theme. I think I've been convinced to finally give up white on black (Except for my terminal. It'll be a cold day in hell before those design nazis convince me to change the colors on my terminal).

aaronblohowiak 18y ago
For partial roll-outs, A/B testing for features and more, check out http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/ http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/
mattmaroon 18y ago
Well, the problem isn't the scope. The test would have just told them that a lot of people would complain they didn't like it, which they probably already knew. A lot of people will do that with a good change or a bad one. What they need to find out is if it will make their site into something bigger in the long run, the way the mini feed and such did. I don't really see how you can test that, because you're looking for something that is at best hard to quantify and at worst impossible.

markm 18y ago

Leave it to Matt to always go against the grain of conventional wisdom. I definitely agree that Facebook has balls pulling out this redesign but I do not agree that the design is for the better. My thoughts on the new facebook homepage: http://blog.clutterme.com/2009/03/thoughts-on-new-facebook-homepage.html http://blog.clutterme.com/2009/03/thoughts-on-new-facebook-h... * It's going to stink for apps. * Facebook is killing its own page views On the converse side, the redesign is a definite upper for brands and the visibility of their pages: Mashable talks about some of the effects that the redesign has had on its Facebook Page, http://mashable.com/2009/03/19/new-facebook-brands/ http://mashable.com/2009/03/19/new-facebook-brands/

swombat 18y ago
* It's going to stink for apps. Apps stunk for the user experience anyway. They were an experiment gone horribly wrong.
whughes 18y ago
Would you consider a pageview decrease a downside? Even though they may lose some ad revenue (I don't know the details), their bandwidth costs may dip a bit, and ads aren't their real path to monetization anyway. I'm not sure it really matters as much to their long-term vision as apps.

kcy 18y ago

Would it be impossible for webapps to just have different interface versions always available? Like if I really liked something about the very first release, I should be able to roll back to that version and use that. We should all be able to use the interface that we like the most and upgrade as we see fit.

omouse 18y ago
It's possible but you have to jump through quite a few hoops to do it. The web isn't built for this unfortunately...