facebook getting closer to cluefulness all the time

Facebook has put up a user survey at http://apps.facebook.com/layoutvote to gauge their userbase's feelings about their new, more Twitter-esque layout. In an earlier post on the topic, I mentioned that Facebook has to become more responsive to their community and solicit more input from them.

So close, Facebook. So. Close.

The results of the survey so far are overwhelmingly negative. That in itself isn't earth-shattering; users tend to resist change, that's a no-brainer. The bigger blunder here is that Facebook unilaterally made a significant change to the site's user experience and then asked what people thought after.

Gathering user opinions about a change in site experience would have been a great idea if they had done it before rolling out the new layout. In fact, if they had set it up so you could opt in early and give them feedback it would have been called a beta test. That simple step would have engendered significantly more goodwill because users would have felt like they were part of the process.

On one level, Facebook should happy that people are so heavily invested in Facebook to feel outrage when it changes. But acknowledging that feeling of ownership means making users a meaningful part of evolutionary process, not fobbing them off with some token hand-waving after the change has been made.

Comments

[Curt Monague]

I agree with you. I feel like Facebook does not have its own personality and and compensates by not paying attention to the user exeprience since they have such a large following.

I must admit I am a recent user to Facebook as I have been on Myspace for several years and did not want to maintain two sites. For the last year I have been researching and lobbying at my firm to implement a Corporate Social Network. So I joined LinkedIn in early 2008 and joined Facebook a couple months ago. I have created several private social networks using Ning, CollectiveX and Huddle.

The most important part to any program is ease of use and the interface. Simplicity seems to be the most effective trait as well.

So far, with the new changes with Facebook, I noticed they went from a Myspace-esque feel to as you said a "Twitter-esque" feel.

It is simple but still not their own. Maybe the next version will be "fresh"

[Curt Montague]

okay I spelled my own name wrong...my excuse is my daughter was attacking my laptop!!!