StandardsGirl.com – Views From Within

So every week I play what was “Scrabulous” with my best friend. Of course, now it is called “WordScraper” thanks to some actions by some very large corporate lawyers, but that is another story. Wordscraper to those who might be just checking in from beyond the grid, is an application on Facebook.com.

Facebook is a simple site, white background, not much clutter and pretty easy to get around. The ease of the design is part of its success, at least in my humble opinion. So when I started seeing articles about how negatively large groups of people were reacting to the redesign I was curious. I mean, unless you completely changed how Facebook looked, how bad could it be? There are very few graphics and the layout is pretty standard, which in this case means user friendly, even if common. So today, as I signed into Facebook to play my game of Wordscraper and I decided to take the plunge. Facebook will soon force everyone to use their new look and feel, so I might as well get used to it, was my thought. I mean how bad could it be? Then I clicked “The new Facebook is here Try it now” link and I found out how easy it is to take simple and make it chaos.

I know this is a matter of opinion, but being a website designer for all of my eleven years in IT (which of course includes UI) I cannot help, but have strong reactions to bad design. So here are my top three reasons Facebook is now no bueno!

Facebook Oh Where Oh Where Did Your UI Go?

(Or top three issues I have with the new design)

1. Left-to-Right: I am not Chinese or Japanese or Israeli – not that there is anything wrong with being from any of those culturally rich countries. My point is I do not read right-to-left. That is why we are comfortable with and, eye tracking studies confirm, prefer left side dominant sites (usually structured in the classic “F” shape). The eye either moves top left to lower right or in a circular motion from top left through the image to complete a circle before leaving a page. This is a left side dominant motion. Why? Because we are a left-to-right culture. This is why right side navs are not popular and right side navs are a death space for advertisements.

Since facebook’s new nav is on the right side and a jumble of text blocks on the left side form the entry point for my eye, I am unable to make quick sense of the page. Right now, I am faced with a physical feeling similar to patting my belly and rubbing my head or whichever way that game went as a child. We do not live in a country where we read right-to-left. Why would you design your website to be the exact opposite of the conditioning of your audience? Just rhetorical, but really why?

2. Repetitive Movement Issue: My primary use for Facebook are the applications, mainly games. I love the games. They are reminders of childhood favorites and I can play with friends all over the country (or the world for that matter). Now these games require repetitive movements of the mouse, movements which as I speak are stirring up the carpal tunnel I have not felt in years. Though, to be fair, I do work on the computer every day, but I have also learned to manage my mouse use, so not to cause issue. Yet, just two hours on the new Facebook and my wrist is aching. Why? Simply put, I have to go a greater distance with my mouse now to create the same motions I did before in half the space. This is putting stress on my wrist and thanks to muscle memory, POOF! Instant carpal!

Facebook should have taken into consideration that in moving the main portion of the page so far over to the left they have increased the movement of the mouse approximately 50% (in my case) and this stresses the mouse hand of a right handed user (which my apologies to lefties, most of us are). (The screenshot is only a half screen and should the screen be fully engaged the distance would be even greater)

3. No Focal Points or Page Organization or Awash in a Sea of Blue: The old Facebook had a page structure that while not blatant, was apparent. In the new sea of blue design, there are no focal points, no obvious structure. It is not possible to locate things easily. Just as the men from “Web Pages That Suck” say in their “you are killing your website” guidelines, if

• It takes longer than four seconds for the man from Mars to understand what our site is about.
• The man from Mars cannot quickly find the focal point of the home page.
• The man from Mars cannot quickly find the focal point of the current page.

Sorry Facebook, I would say the site is shot and bleeding, the question is will someone come save it! By making everything visually equal, nothing is important, and by reversing the traditional left-to-right structure my mind does not make instant sense of the page.

On a personal note, even though I am a web designer and a Facebook user it took me ten minutes to find my applications. Now I am no man from Mars, though I have dated a few, but that seems like it took me more than four seconds to find. While the rules on Web Pages that suck have been around for a while, they are still tried and true in my book. A site must organize the data on a page or users will not stay to make the attempt and in that vein, what’s with the right nav, but left sided functionality points (see the drop down arrow in the nav area – left aligned!).

I know there will be people who disagree with me, but with only 30-40% early adopters, I think Facebook may want to rethink forcing this new look on people. Internet folk are fickle and they don’t like the barn door upside down and backwards. Meebo, MySpace and a few others are probably putting out the welcome mat with the hopes of many newly dissatisfied Facebookers and I think they should put out the best China! Oh maybe that should be Wedgewood!