If you’re one of the billions of people on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed the ever-changing design of the news feed. Recently, you noticed that it changed again. Whether you think this latest change is for better or worse, there is good news – Facebook says this is what they’ve settled on. That’s right. Facebook claims they will not be changing the news feed another time, but that this latest design is going to stick around for the long haul.
A Year of Testing
Facebook spent a year of strenuous testing trying to get their design right. A few months ago, they rolled out a brand new design that boasted huge images, a dynamic navigation bar, and a ton of other high-tech design elements. But when a small margin of Facebook users were given the new design, the results were disastrous. Users literally hated the new design, and they weren’t exactly keeping quiet about it. With so much bad user feedback and negative press, Facebook pulled the design and went back to the drawing board – right at square one. This wasn’t the first news feed design the company had to call off, either.
Why This Design?
Facebook took what it had learned from their past attempts at creating the future of news feeds, and incorporated that into their newest design. The design is nearly identical to what mobile users have been seeing since the beginning. It boasts new iconography, bigger images, two new fonts, and story cards. It’s much more simplistic than the design which bombed a few months ago, ditching and/or switching a lot of the over-the-top features incorporated in that one.
One of the biggest things Facebook tried to do with this newest design was limit clutter, and make the social site easy enough for anyone to use. Users don’t have to learn anything new for this new design, as they did with the previous one. Everything has been simplified, for a better (and less stressful) user experience.
Key Facts & Features
- Profile pictures are back in story cards, where they belong, to limit clutter.
- Separate news feeds like “friends,” and “photos” are gone. There is only one news feed again.
- Dark themed drop-down menu of feeds on the left hand side of the screen is gone entirely.
- All users will now see a large search bar at the top of their screen.
- Bigger photos, which are easier to view directly in the news feed but aren’t so big they slow loading times.
- Two new fonts – Helvetica and Arial
Conclusion
The newest Facebook news feed design is much more simplistic, allowing users of all technological levels to easily navigate the site. There is nothing new to be learned, and everything is much more streamlined. Whether you prefer this latest news feed design or not, Facebook says that this is the one which will be sticking around for the long run.
