Today, Mark Zuckerberg made a highly anticipated announcement from Facebook headquarters as he unveiled the newest development in Facebook design: a more prominent, graphically weighted news feed.
“How we’re all sharing is changing and we need to reflect that,” Mark Zuckerberg said as he scrolled through a screen displaying the ways that Facebook’s news feed has evolved over the years.
The newest news feed design gears toward “giving people a better job of getting the content they want to them,” said VP of Product at Facebook, Chris Cox.
If you are a veteran Facebook member, you remember a world of words and clutter in the early days, where every action appeared in narrations and inside small, green quotes. Over the years, Facebook reduced clutter and made sharing your personal life more of a real-time experience and less of an educational one.
In the new news feed redesign, photos will be larger and more vibrant in higher resolution. Articles that you and your friends share will have a more prominent image, larger and clearer titles, and the logo of the publisher featured so that you will easily be able to identify the source.
When you find someone on Facebook with whom you are not connected, the new design brings the element of timeline into their page so that you get a better idea of who the person is before you add them. Their page will feature a much bigger profile picture, put mutual friends front and center, and a clearer “Add Friend” button.
When you ‘check in’ to a site, the new news feed will not only tell people where you are, but display a map and a photo so that your friends can capture the experience you are sharing.
The new news feed will reduce clutter when sharing from third party applications such as Pinterest, with a more linear display and with a more prominent image.
Shared videos will be larger for more efficient and visible viewing. The left hand side of the video will show thumbnail photos of friends who ‘like’ the view and as you hover over their faces, their comments appear underneath. This reduces the clutter and distraction from the video, allowing you to prompt more or less detail, enhancing the sharing and viewing experience.
The new news feed will show upcoming events based on what is on your calendar and where you have checked in before, as well as trending articles on your favorite interests and by your favorite sources. “The new news feed is focused on what your friends are saying and what’s going on with the people and friends that you care about, said Design Director Julie Zhuo.
The new news feed will also allow you to filter what appears. “You have more control over which feeds show up,” said Chris Struhar, News Feed Tech Lead.
You can choose from a variety of filters including, by popular demand, an All Friends Feed that allows you to see every single post from every single friend in chronological order. Other feeds include a Music Feed, which filters what your favorite musicians are posting, a Photo Feed that shows the photos and albums your friends are sharing in real time, and a Following Feed that shows every post from pages and public figures you follow.
Every feed is available on desktop and mobile.
“We’ve never had a design that is as vibrant as what you see today,” said Chris.
Chris Cox closed the announcement by addressing consistency between desktop and mobile versions. “A lot of what you’re seeing is a very mobile inspired web design,” Chris said about the new design.
The main objective of the new news feed design was to create a more fluid method of experience and sharing that occurs the same across all platforms. On mobile, the user will be able to navigate between pages without going back to the home page. The same “New Stories” bubble that appears on the mobile version will appear on the home page, eliminating the need to refresh. ‘Chat’ tabs will appear similarly between platforms, as well.
Facebook is releasing a limited roll out today to test for efficiency between users, receive feedback, and smooth out any glitches before making an official switch to a wide audience at a later date.
Are you excited about the new News Feed? What questions do you have about it? To get on the waiting list for the new News Feed, click HERE!