Palo Alto, Calif., — The social networking site Facebook on Monday started to roll out a major redesign that features a cleaner and simpler interface that links feed technology with user forums, aimed at simplifying the site and giving users more control and ownership over their profiles.
Announced in a press release, Facebook’s new design is slowly being rolled out to its 80 million users over the next few days. Visitors to Facebook’s “new” site can take the opportunity to test out the “new, cleaner, and simpler design,” according to a spokesman. It will be a phased rollout, so not everyone will immediately see the changes, but Facebook urged users to check back in over the next few days and play around with the new features.
“Spare a few quality moments with your favorite Facebook you know and love.”
The company has been sending invitation to people to use the new design and try out the improved features by navigating back and forth between the new and current versions of the site. Access to the new design will be limited at first and gradually become available to all of Facebook’s more than 80 million users over the coming days.
The redesigning work has been under development since early this year. Over the past six months, more than 100,000 Facebook users offered constructive suggestions on the layout and features, many of which were included in the final version.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the changes were necessary in order to highlight the more relevant information that user’s value, as well as to provide users with more control and ownership over their profiles. “Facebook’s new design makes it a lot easier for users to share information, and we encourage them to check it out.”
Among the listed features, Facebook brings the Wall to the front, offering users with a forum to post comments, photos and videos on, as well as content from third-party applications, and giving them complete control over the stories they put on their profile.
Browsing has been made easy with tabs, such as the Wall tab; The Wall tab features recent posts from users and friends and user activity. Users can enlarge, shrink, or delete their posts and friends’ comments. The Information tab contains contact information and interests. User photos and albums are under the Photo tab, and a “Boxes” tab holds applications. In addition, users can create new tabs to feature their favorite applications. A new “Publisher Box,” under the Wall tab, provides a single location for adding content to the Wall.
For starters, the left-hand bar on the start page that presently features a search box and links to photos, groups, events, marketplace, and certain applications will be moved to the right side of the page and integrated with notifications and friends’ status updates.
Facebook will also alter the way users can interact with applications, the sometimes maddening add-ons that can quickly clutter a profile. The applications menu is now at the top of the page instead of the left side for a cleaner look. The search box is on the upper right-hand side of the top menu. Links are still available through the menus for “Profile,” “Friends,” “Applications,” and the “Inbox”. Users “allow access” to an application and try it out before adding it.
One of the intentions behind the redesign is to make the site more compatible with micro-blogging–adding snippets of text, images, or video clips.
But many who pursue Facebook pointed out that there is more behind Facebook’s facelift than its stated aim to simplify and clean up the design of its user profiles.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg said in a statement that the changes are intended to highlight users most recent and relevant information, giving them “even more control and ownership over their profiles and simplify the user experience.”
Sarah Perez, a blogger at Read Write Web, noted that the redesign coincides with the move into the job market by many of the users who flocked to Facebook when the site launched in 2004 as a closed network just for college students.
“Cleaning up a Facebook profile as well as ditching a slew of time-wasting applications is almost like a coming-of-age ritual now,” Perez noted. “As the college kids move into the real world, the social network needs to reflect their changing needs in order to stay relevant while still appealing to the next generation of users.” She said Facebook is looking to convince the so-called Gen Y workforce “that their set of social media tools can be the new way to get things done. It helps when profiles are not filled with pointless, time-wasting apps that do not just fill your screen but also spam you and your friends with their notifications.”
Although Facebook is highlighting the changes as a way to create a cleaner user experience and to allow developers to interact better with users, the real strategy is to highlight new content relevant to the user and to foster conversations about that content, said TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington.
These changes create a new Facebook home page that “looks an awful lot like” FriendFeed, a site launched in February by ex-Googlers.
One of the reasons behind this makeover was the overcrowded interface that made navigation difficult. When the company unveiled first details about the new website in May, it made some developers raise eyebrows about the changes, worried that an extra click might affect them.
On the other hand, there have also been positive reactions, with developers praising the new, fresh, more dynamic interface that is not as constricted as the old one and allows more room for breathing.
The changes also clearly show that Facebook is looking to spur growth, particularly in the U.S. and other markets where they are still trying to gain on market leader MySpace, he added.
“Many of the changes seem designed to put the year-old application platform on the backburner more than anything,” Arrington said. “Facebook has had to fight an ongoing privacy, spam and competitive battle with its more aggressive third party developers, using algorithmic and policy tools.”
“Facebook is hosting a platform event for developers later this week in San Francisco.”