New Facebook Design Opens This Morning. There has been some buzz about the coming Facebook re-design for a few months. The wait to experience it is over today as facebook will be rolling the new design forward in phases to it’s users. Within a few weeks every user of facebook will be running on the new design.

The thing that strikes me the most is how much less crowded everything feels. The User Interface is much easier to navigate and it actually takes less clicks to get to specific functionality without feeling confusing or overly busy. As we predicted facebook is now serving ads on application canvas pages. Currently the ads do not appear specifically targeted.

All in all the new design is quite impressive. Application designers are going to have to become more compelling and engaging and deeper in order to compete for users attention and profile real estate. While some app designers will not like this; it will most likely lead to better applications and the “throw away” 1 dimensional apps will lose users for certain.

To be certain, I am sure there will be some harsh critics of the new design. A certain percentage of people will not like this radical of a change of user experience. This means much more work for app developers and some app developers are not happy about this change. As I have said many times in regards to the evolving facebook platform; the only constant is change. I am sure some app developers will abandon their less popular apps and not want to make the required changes.

Here a few of the highlights to the new facebook design:
Applications and the New Design

Third-party applications are more tightly integrated into Facebook in order to make using applications simpler and more seamless. Users will have the option to interact with an application before adding it, grant it access to their information, and decide where they want it placed, if at all, on their profiles.

Publish More Content Quickly

Located on the Wall tab, the Publisher feature enables users to create more content than ever and in a centralized place. From the Publisher, a user can add photos, upload video, or write notes, rather than navigating to each individual application. Similarly, users can add content to their friends’ profiles through the Publisher on their profiles. They make it very easy to post a link. Additionally, the ability to filter what you see in the wall as an option.

Easier Site Navigation with Tabs

The top menu is similar to the old design and allows users to access their Profile, Friends, and Inbox. The left hand applications menu has been moved to the ‘Applications’ link on the top of the menu screen. The Profile is now split out into tabs:

• The Wall tab displays the most recent and relevant information both about the user and by the user;

• The Info tab shows information about the user that doesn’t change frequently;

• The Photos tab shows photos of the user as well as their albums;

• The Boxes tab features all of a user’s existing application boxes.

Users are also able to add individual tabs for their favorite applications. This gives users greater control over their own profiles and makes navigation faster and easier.

We have noticed a few minor bugs in the design, but nothing that crashes. To try the new facebook design you can go here: http://www.new.facebook.com

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