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Every time I use FB I swear at whoever designed the damn sort. Either it picks some useless articles to show you as "Top Stories" or it sorts the articles by th

Every time I use FB I swear at whoever designed the damn sort. Either it picks some useless articles to show you as "Top Stories" or it sorts the articles by the latest comment date. Plus it keeps switching on its own back to "top stories." Maybe it's not designers but whoever made that design decision pisses off everyone I know. Designing for users and designing to enhance income is not usually the same.

treehau5 12y ago
Does this have anything to do with this article? I don't know about you, but they must be designing something right, because I know a ton of tech challenged people that know how to use Facebook better than their Cellphones, TV's and DVRs. Whether this is a testament to their design, or permutation is another story, but I purposely picked those 4 examples because they all have equally permeated our society.
untog 12y ago
that design decision pisses off everyone I know I bet you it doesn't. All the tech-inclined developers you talk to about how terrible it is, maybe. But your siblings, parents, non-tech friends? No. Facebook are not stupid. The feed is ordered very deliberately and they carefully monitor what gets the most clicks. It's just that you (and I) are outside of the majority here.
- scott_karana 12y ago
  Actually, most of my friends and family are technically inept, and they complain about seeing "the same old junk" all the time. They're all heavy Facebook users, so I'm not sure how much they deviate from the norm, but they're not remotely technical.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Most of the non-technical users I interact with feel the same way about the feed as the upthread complaint. I do think the feed is ordered very deliberately based on Facebook's data, but not around pleasing users, instead around assuring the marginal value of spending money for reach so that more people will do that. That's why "get stories sorted by our in-house secret-sauce algorithm" keeps getting pushed forward while "most recent" keeps getting made less useful and harder to get to (to the point where it is no longer possible to have it the default feed display on the Android app.)
- coldcode 12y ago
  I took a poll of my friends, most of whom are not technical at all and most found it annoying.
rhizome 12y ago
Designing for users and designing to enhance income is not usually the same. It's not an either/or choice.

treehau5 12y ago

Does this have anything to do with this article? I don't know about you, but they must be designing something right, because I know a ton of tech challenged people that know how to use Facebook better than their Cellphones, TV's and DVRs. Whether this is a testament to their design, or permutation is another story, but I purposely picked those 4 examples because they all have equally permeated our society.

untog 12y ago

that design decision pisses off everyone I know I bet you it doesn't. All the tech-inclined developers you talk to about how terrible it is, maybe. But your siblings, parents, non-tech friends? No. Facebook are not stupid. The feed is ordered very deliberately and they carefully monitor what gets the most clicks. It's just that you (and I) are outside of the majority here.

scott_karana 12y ago
Actually, most of my friends and family are technically inept, and they complain about seeing "the same old junk" all the time. They're all heavy Facebook users, so I'm not sure how much they deviate from the norm, but they're not remotely technical.
dragonwriter 12y ago
Most of the non-technical users I interact with feel the same way about the feed as the upthread complaint. I do think the feed is ordered very deliberately based on Facebook's data, but not around pleasing users, instead around assuring the marginal value of spending money for reach so that more people will do that. That's why "get stories sorted by our in-house secret-sauce algorithm" keeps getting pushed forward while "most recent" keeps getting made less useful and harder to get to (to the point where it is no longer possible to have it the default feed display on the Android app.)
coldcode 12y ago
I took a poll of my friends, most of whom are not technical at all and most found it annoying.

rhizome 12y ago

Designing for users and designing to enhance income is not usually the same. It's not an either/or choice.