Sep 21, 2011

How (not) to manage changes

Facebook is yet again making changes to its frontpage. They notified users of it in their official blog, which is here. The main change this time is that the users will see "Top Stories" on the top of their newsfeed, and that a live newsticker will be located on the right side.
Facebook is doing this redesign the same way it has done them before: throwing out stuff without asking the users. One big problem with this one, is that it (apparently, haven't been able to test it) takes away the ability to see all items in the feed chronologically. Only the posts that Facebook thinks are important (not you or your friends) will be on top. I don't like the feature either, but that's not the topic now. This post is about how Facebook keeps thinking they know better what we users want.
This is the second change in a week to Facebook's functionality. Last week they introduced lists (Google+) and subscribing posts (Twitter). Most of the users haven't had the time or the need to learn what these features do or how they work. Lists and subscribing also just appeared without any real notification or instructions. Last Spring Facebook changed how groups work. With this they gave some notice - and made it impossible to change the group to the new format unless the language was set to English and didn't tell anyone about it. At the same time people wondered why their newsfeed was so empty. Some change in the frontpage caused it to show posts from "top friends", not all friends. Again, no notification or instructions how to change it. Facebook likes to keep re-inventing itself and trying to improve things, even the things don't need a total re-design in a big scale.
These type of changes go against nearly everything I've learned about software design and considering users. New features don't have to be added once a week, especially when the features are considered major and the service is already in heavy use. Everything should come with a notification and proper instructions. Those who login to Facebook once a week will not read the official blog or check out the help files, because they don't care that much. Not that the help section even had anything on the language issues with the groups... New features should be tested on actual users (which Facebook has done to some extents) and you should ask feedback from the testers. Those on Facebook who have seen the new features beforehand haven't been asked for any feedback. Most importantly, listening to users will help your business. Of course, if you don't ask for feedback you don't hear the negative comments and you can keep thinking everything is well. This leads us back to the official blog in Facebook...
At the time I'm writing this, the blog post has over 1000 comments. I've skimmed through most of them. Nearly all posts are strictly against the redesign. Those that aren't, are apparently made by people who get some benefits from Facebook. They don't represent the average user. There are no official comments or discussion by Facebook, because that's not their style. They just throw features at you and go plan their next new thing. We can probably read their official reply in two or three weeks.

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