Facebook Introduces a Mobile-Oriented Redesign

New submitter PuZZleDucK writes "If you hadn't had enough 'mobile UI' thrust upon you by OS makers, you'll be relieved to know Facebook will be chipping in. The company is redesigning its desktop user interface in a way which 'standardizes the feed across mobile devices and desktop computers, is designed to keep users active and interacting as well as appeal to advertisers.' According to the article, 'Greater emphasis is given to images — which are now much larger. Photos now make up nearly 50% of news feed stories and are now front and center. If you see shades of Instagram — or Google+ — in the new feed, you aren't alone. We see them too. Facebook says it is following trends on where design is headed and it is clear that trend includes big photos and a clean, navigable design.' Enjoy, I'll be over here."

Comments

Please ignore

[sproketboy]

Please if we all ignore Facebook maybe it will just go away. Wishful thinking....

Diaspora

[BasilBrush]

DIaspora is fine if you want to connect up with all your OSS, Linux, neck beard friends. Since few of my friends are like that, I'll stick with Facebook.

Re:Diaspora

[Arashi256]

This. I mean, let's be realistic folks.

Re: Diaspora

[Brucelet]

Then what are you doing on slashdot?

Re:Diaspora

[0xdeadbeef]

Since few of my friends are like that, I'll stick with Facebook.

Ah, a friend of the elderly! God bless you, son.

Re: Diaspora

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

If you want a complete, far-leftist version of Slashdot, give Kuro5hin a try.

Or just stay here and wait about 6 more months.

Re: Diaspora

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say there have been two great migrations and both have affected slashdot negatively. I believe Fark users found slashdot perhaps 10 years ago, and 4 chan raiders came 5 years later. Smaller groups probably came in from Engadget or gizmodo. Gadget nerds for sure, but their knowledgeable like that of a salesman: the bigger number is always better. Easily confused by questions like "is the 4s a 4g device?".

These two populations have dispersed again and gone elsewhere but some have stayed and mixed with the declining population of original slashdot nerds.

Slashdot in its early days had comments from readers that were experts in their fields. I remember many times not having a clue as I read posts about logic gates on obscure microprocessors or assembly language or how some capacitor/transistor/doohicky on some board affected some given output.

As the populations mixed we are left with a userbase that prizes the +5 funny above all and the informative and interesting posts often contain profanity. The community cares more for memes and tired jokes than discussing and learning.

Occasionally the "expert" slashdotter type resurfaces. The current user base refers to them as neckbeards. In much the same way that the characters in Idiocracy would describe the main character as "talking like a fag".

I'm only here out of habit.

Captcha: sadden

Re:A link to Diaspora?

[bickerdyke]

I want interoperability between Social network Providers!

It worked for network providers, it worked for email providers....

Design trends

[Tridus]

Those designers sure are trendy people. They've all hopped aboard the same bandwagon and all follow the same trend, even in cases where it doesn't actually work that well (see: the Metro version of IE 10 where for certain errors the commands to actually diagnose what's wrong are just plain missing and the errors unfixable without switching to the desktop version).

It's almost like the fashion industry at this point. I can't wait to see what they decide the new trend is in 5 years. Maybe everything will need to be orange.

Re:Sharing text is not caring text

[Col. Klink (retired)]

Look at someone's text-only status updates. See the options at the bottom: "Like - Comment". Compare that to the options at the bottom of a photo: "Like - Comment - Share".

You can't "Share" someone else's text-only status update. You can post your own status updates as text only, and that is a form of sharing, but that's not what's being talked about.

Forcing

[Mike Frett]

I don't mind cleaner, speedier websites with less clutter. But when the day comes where I am forced to use a Phone, rather than a Desktop Computer, that'll be my divorce from the Internet. The Internet was suppose to be open and accessible to everyone who wanted to visit it, pushing things to the point where only certain people can access it is wrong. And when, not if, that days comes; it will be a disaster and a setback to advancement and openness.

northern-hemisphere-centrism?

[cmyr]

I'm in Zambia right now, and while very few people own a traditional computer (or a tablet, for that matter) android based phones are becoming ubiquitous, and 3g is accessible and relatively affordable. The number one thing people use their smartphones for is Facebook.

Re:A link to Diaspora?

[History's Coming To]

Obligatory (and extraordinarily apt) xkcd

If this follows past Facebook redesigns...

[93 Escort Wagon]

They will simultaneously change the structure of the privacy settings, and of course opt you in to everything automatically. So, if you're a Facebook user, be sure to check your privacy settings after you see the update on your feed.

Also, their mobile app (likely intentionally) gives you less ability to always hide things - particularly sponsored stories from particular advertisers - from your feed. I'm guessing this will be the new normal on the desktop too.

Bottom line: Like everyone that came before, Facebook has no idea how to turn social media into a sustainably profitable business. They're basically making all the moves MySpace made 5 or so years ago - moves that pretty much killed MySpace. I expect a new iteration from a competitor will pop up in the next couple of years; people will flee the now ad-infested Facebook; and another identical cycle will begin with that new company. Not that the founders will care; they'll get rich selling to the investors (who will, once again, belatedly learn the new company doesn't have any more of a business model than MySpace and Facebook had).