Email
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Zuckerberg Responds to User Complaints on Facebook Redesign
September 18th, 2008
| By Justin Smith | 11 Comments » |
With the number of Facebook users expressing discontent about the new redesign reaching 3.8 million between two Facebook user protest groups, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded today in the Facebook company blog:
It’s tempting to say that we should just support both designs, but this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Supporting two versions is a huge amount of work for our small team, and it would mean that going forward we would have to build everything twice. If we did that then neither version would get our full attention.
That said, Facebook is a work in progress. We constantly try to improve things and we understand that our work isn’t perfect. We appreciate the thousands of you who have written in to give us feedback. Even if you’re joining a group to express things you don’t like about the new design, you’re giving us important feedback and you’re sharing your voice, which is what Facebook is all about.
Users who have vocalized their complaints on the redesign by joining one of these groups can know that their voices have been heard by Mark Zuckerberg. Whether users actually follow through on their threats to leave the site, and how Facebook continues to update the new design in response to user complaints, remains to be seen.
Exclusive In Depth Market Research Report on the Future of the Social Gaming Market from Inside Network
Download The Guide to Marketing Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook
Strategic Facebook Platform Ecosystem Overview and Guide For Agencies & Brands
French / Français
Spanish / Español
Italian / Italiano
Exclusive In Depth Market Research Report on the State and Future of Virtual Goods in the US
Track Facebook's International Growth in 95 Global Markets with our Monthly Reports and Analysis
Inside Facebook analyzes 12 major Facebook marketing efforts from leading brands. Who comes out on top?
September 19th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I was with you right up to the last sentence, and then it occurred to me that you guys are up to the same stupid crap that almost all other dev & marketing orgs do sooner or later.
Oh, we’re soooo creative, we can make it better. Oh, our competition is creeping up on us, we need to change. Yeah, the customers will complain, but will they really leave? Are there alternatives when we have them relatively locked in? We can get away with this…. (but you messed up your brand. tsk tsk)
To top it off, Seth Godin has a great post TODAY on Playing Bigger.
I have news for you guys who are responsible for the site redesign. You didn’t play big enough. Play bigger.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
[...] With the new Facebook rollout, millions have felt compelled to begin some sort of uprising against the layout and Zuckurberg finally acknowledges it and releases a statement. [...]
September 19th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Mark,
If I took everything off your desk and placed it on the floor in a totally different order than you have been used to, and spent many many hours organizing to suit your needs and eyes and removed your desk that you were very comfortable with. And changed your entrance to your office to be a washroom without a door. (like the new opening page) And told you you could never have the option to have anything back to how it was. That is what you have done to my facebook page. I have now deleted everything on it. Why did you NOT give us the option to keep the old style that many of us were happy with and the new one for people that prefer the new one. It was NOT broken!! for my needs and many others. I was not against the new one some people like it more I did not. But your guy’s and your power trip ( This is now the new ONLY facebook ) has made me not interested in facebook anymore. And I am sure you will have many more in the future do the same. You have older people like me that liked to have very little on our page and have everything which was not much, viewable on the opening page, we were not into all these poke me apps etc we were just communicating with friends. We did not need all these tabs etc to go looking for things because it was all there. The old one was just fine for people like me, maybe not the younger ones, but having the options would have made things easier for all of us. including you.
But you choose not to care about us that like things simple like the old page? I am out of here, I may come back when you show some respect to us that prefer and are allowed to have an option.
Rob
September 20th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I actually really like the new design of facebook. It is much nicer, less cluttered, and more web 2.0. It is much more streamlined. Love it, love it, love it. I think other sites can take a hint from the facebook design team.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I’ll be the first to say I’ve left Facebook. Like many others, I kept my page very well spartan, and then I came back to find everything scattered, and more information about people than I cared to know.
Further, the new design is very stalker. Initially I had no problem telling facebook I didn’t want to read the garbage about every other person that was on my friend list. And then that option disappeared. Fine.
Mark Zuckerberg, stop tantalizing us with useful features and then taking them away.
Mark Zuckerberg, stop shoving -USELESS- features down our throat.
Mark Zuckerberg, STOP forcing unnecessary changes on your clients.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I whole heartedly agree that this new design is design madness. I do not understand how anyone could find this less cluttered than the original design.I had everything on my page where I wanted it and what I did not want I did not have on my page. Now I have about 5 pages of crap to have to sort through everyday when just days ago I only had one simple page to look at. There are a lot of people out there that are not very internet savvy, they use facebook as a means to communicate with friends and family. What a way to make life easier for them! Frankly I think the designers need to get off their thrones and walk with the people for a while because they obviously don’t use their own site. If they did they would be just as frustrated as thousands of others.
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
New Site For College Students: http://www.inkampus.com
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Face Book looked good. Somepeople had huge rambling pages, thats fine. I had a sparten page, set up the way I wanted it to be presented. These tab’s have no place here! SO – long story short, I’ve deactivated my account and left Face Book to it.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
It sucks and is very complex and the way the applications are organized sucks
October 15th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I trully believe that Facebook is a SCAM!!!
You should go out of business for stealing people’s money!!!
My account got deleted twice for absolutely no reason and without any kind of notification or explanation. Also, there is not a single person that can answer my questions and explain to me why my account was cancelled.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
My account was deleted as well…no explanation and it has been over a week and no response after repeated emails. They could give a rats behind about us as individuals. They only care about numbers and money making ads.