About a month ago, Facebook changed their homepage design and it looks like they will be rolling out yet another homepage redesign. And this one looks like it will include some major changes. I’m sure it will be not well received by the masses and it looks like Facebook is trying to prepare for that with an open letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that was posted to Facebook late yesterday on some upcoming privacy changes. Check out Mashable’s review of the redesign below and let me know what you think of the changes. Like them, hate them? Personally, I’m really excited to see the improvements to the search functionality.
5 Big Changes to Watch in Facebook’s Upcoming Redesign
1. All of the notifications have been moved to the top left. Notifications, requests, and inbox are prominently displayed next to the Facebook logo. Chat remains on the bottom, however.
2. Search is far more important in this redesign. As my fellow usability experts can attest, placing the search box in the middle of the page instead of the right hand side increases the number of searches users make. Facebook wants to focus on its real-time search engine as it prepares to compete with Twitter.
3. Your profile picture and status appears on the homepage. If you look on the current homepage design, you’ll find the updates of all of your friends, but yours isn’t constantly there, reminding you to update your old, outdated status.
This is a problem Facebook has needed to fix for a while. Now it’s addressed with a new section at the top left of the homepage with your face and your most recent status update, along with a prompt to update your status.
4. There’s a new border around the main content. It separates your left-hand navigation and notifications from your Facebook news feed.
5. The ability to see your inbox from the homepage. We want to stress how important this change is to the new Facebook design. It gives you direct access to your most recent messages without leaving the homepage, which should increase engagement.
via 5 Big Changes to Watch in Facebook’s Upcoming Redesign [Screenshots].
