By: Chad Sweely

Last night, I embarked on the new look of Facebook, and I have to say I am fairly impressed.

First of all, I have to give Mark, and the whole Facebook team props, because of the new cosmetic change that they have developed, and how they have handled it. I remember back in college when I first started using facebook, they introduced a few new physical changes to the site, and the facebook team received a whole lot of guff from their community for not really explaining what they were doing, and if this was okay with their users.

This controversy was really big when the News Feed was introduced. I remember when it first came to be, and hearing from fellow college students that it was starting to become an invasion of privacy, even though they soon started to latch on to it.

Now, they have come across to the user (once they log in) explaining this big physical change, emphasizing feedback, and having the option to revert back to the previous feel of the site.

Here are some features from my pro/con perspective.

Pros:

• Wider width for more information. The ‘classic’ design was tightly condensed, even though it was pretty close to the same dimensions it is now, but with the left menu sidebar removed, it does allow more room for content.
• News Feed organized by medium. The ‘feed’ section of Facebook is now sorted by Top Stories (the most recent activity of your friends on Facebook), Status Updates (which actually used to be under the Friends menu, but is now amalgamated into the feed), Photos, and Posted Links. These, I have never thought of as a ‘feed’ arrangement, but I’m sure it will be very accessible in this way.
• Option to go back to old design. If you’re among the large demographic that does not like change, you can go back to the original layout for facebook, and when you are ready, you can switch back to the new design.

My one con:

• Wall mixed with feed. On your profile, along with your friend’s profiles, The Wall is now mixed in with the News Feed. On the old design, they were two separate entities, and was great to have The Wall as an actual part of the person’s profile, and not mixed/cluttered with the News Feed, which is two separate areas of social interaction. It also does make the profile page look cluttered, and not as organized as the way the classic profile page was.

Feel free to leave any comments or feedback.