Facebook’s Interface Update

This was written in February 2020.

I just got invited to “the new Facebook Experience”.

What does this mean? Well, it means that Facebook learned from its previous mistakes from the late 2000’s, when thousands of users would log in to find their homepage completely changed and need to learn a whole new website again every time Facebook updated. It always caused backlash with everyone complaining for at least a week about how they missed ‘the old Facebook’ before they settled into the new (and objectively improved) interface.

 Users don’t like unexpected change, even when it’s for the better. It’s one of the reasons for the failure of the Windows 10 update. Even though it was well designed from a user experience perspective, it was a large departure from the comfort of the original Windows experience. This implementation left feelings of disorientation and inclinations to reject the interface. In order to combat this, companies aim to introduce incremental changes over time, notify users changes are happening, and give them the ability to switch back if they aren’t ready for the change. Giving people agency over the changes helps with feelings of anxiety and eases transitions.

 Especially when the change is big. And this one – this is big.

 Not quite as big as when Facebook changed from a profile focused website to a newsfeed. The defaulted homepage is still the newsfeed with quick links to the left, profile settings to the top right, and friends online to message on the right. The individual pieces of information in the feed look the same; they didn’t get rid of the beloved reactions and commenting is still a primary action.

 The changes that did happen, however, show a lot about how Facebook is trying to position themselves to their users and where they are focusing in 2020.

They added the option for users to toggle in and out of dark mode, which is a growing trend across apps as consumers become more educated on screen fatigue. Their buttons are larger and rounder, as are their input fields. Their sticky header takes up  more real estate, most likely to fit those big buttons. It becomes more approachable and friendly and even less ‘tech-y’ than before.

One  telling interaction occurs when a user attempts to ‘hide an ad’. The pop-up below appears, citing possible reasons for why the user wants to hide an ad. “Knows too much” is the first option shown – in the older Facebook, it was the second to last option. It’s difficult to say when Facebook added this option, as well as the option: “Too Personal”. Google added this option to their advertisements in 2017 and it’s hard to imagine that Facebook would be the pioneer in data privacy.

In 2018 Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress to address data privacy after proof that Russia used Facebook to spread targeted false information leading up to the 2016 election. Since then, the company has put in a lot of effort towards allowing their users to feel in control of their data.  These reasons given for why a user would want to hide an ad is most likely an outcome from that scandal. The fact that ‘knows too much’ has moved to the top of the list shows that more and more people are concerned about how their data is being used and their privacy eroded.

The left navigation list looks mainly the same. The link ‘create’ is up front at the top for easy access to users. The first item in the ‘create’ menu is ‘page’, not ‘event’ or ‘group’, since those two options are more relevant to the average consumer than a page to ‘connect and share with customers and fans’. This indicates that growing business presence on Facebook is continuing to be a trend.

The link to the user’s profile page is easily accessed at the top of the menu. Second, a link to view each of the user’s events – makes sense since Facebook is still the go-to platform for planning parties and get togethers.

There are the standard ‘Groups’ and ‘Marketplace,’, the new called ‘Watch’ (a page that has been added to the old Facebook interface, but did not exist before this update), ‘Pages,’ and ‘Fundraisers,’ which is a nod to the recent trend of people choosing to raise money for a charity for their birthday.

Facebook kept their stories at the top and centered to strengthen the recognition of their partnership with Instagram. Coincidently, the Instagram update now includes a logo at the bottom that reads “From Facebook” while loading.

They kept their traditional sticky ad space in the upper right part of the screen. However, it feels cleaner and more integrated than the old layout.

In addition to the friends list on the messaging tab, Facebook reintroduced the message button from 2 or 3 app iterations prior (before iMessage became its own application). This overlay button was widely unpopular and clunky on top of the Facebook app when it was implemented the first time, so it’s surprising that it is making a comeback. It seems to be their stop-gap for switching to views without chat functionality until they figure out how to better integrate it. This time the users can’t move the button around to the different corners of the screen – sorry, that button is stuck in the bottom right.

The biggest change is the top center navigation.

In mobile there is evidence that Facebook is starting to incorporate personalization into the navigation experience.

Here are two users’ app navigations. While the first three navigation items are the same, the fourth is not – one has ‘Pages’ as the navigation item, while the other has ‘Facebook Dating’ – a service launched in 2019 to compete with Tinder, Bumble, and other dating apps.  Facebook appears to identify users as potential candidates for the service without their subscription. This personalization has not made it to the desktop experience, which means they test functionality on mobile platform before rolling it out to other parts of the holistic experience.

As of now the desktop navigation is static, and demonstrates the interesting direction Facebook is focusing their business in 2020.

Left to right – ‘Homepage’ contains the classic Facebook newsfeed that has anchored the user experience for several years now. ‘Watch’ appears a second time, illustrating it’s importance to users. ‘Marketplace’ - Facebook’s answer to Ebay. ‘Groups’ – self-explanatory. And a strange Tetris box icon that is labeled ‘Gaming.’ Did Facebook just give me a shortcut to Farmville?

Not quite.

First – Watch

In a completely new screen, Facebook has created an entire feed for the videos that are interspersed throughout the regular newsfeed. Video is the preferred medium for just about everything. Youtube is still video king, but the emergence of popular apps such as TikTok and Quibi (well, this is forecasted to be popular. Its launching soon and that theory will be tested) prove that video is bigger than ever.

Hubspot says that more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands over any other type of content. Increased conversion rates have been reported over 80%, and 93% of businesses reported getting a new customer on social media thanks to video. It’s a big deal. Facebook is helping businesses capitalize on this conversion opportunity by streamlining the experience for users.

Additionally, from their 2018 Annual Report: “The increase in the ads delivered as driven by an increase in users and their engagement and an increase in the number and frequency of ads displayed on News Feed, partially offset by increasing user engagement with video content and other product changes.”  It’s in the best interest for user engagement to have a feed devoted entirely to video content. Now users don’t have to sift through different political posts, family members life updates, and friend’s babies in order to get to that Tasty video they really want to see. It’s all in one clean location, with a watchlist reminiscent of Youtube to ensure users don’t miss a single video.

Second – Marketplace

Marketplace was introduced in 2016 as an alternative for Craigslist and Ebay. According to Cnet, as of October 2018 more than 800 million people located in over 70 countries use FB Marketplace monthly. In 2018, Facebook announced the option for businesses to place ads in Marketplace, making it a profitable part of their business strategy. That quarter their ad revenue was up by 42% from 2017. By July 2019 it had used algorithms to deduce users were frequently starting their search for big ticket items such as cars and apartments online and created partnerships with businesses to boost those listings. Companies that sell on ‘Marketplace’ have reported up to a 33% sales lift after starting to use the platform.

Unlike its competitors Craigslist and Ebay, Facebook doesn’t charge companies for posting listings. Instead, they rely entirely on ad spots to generate revenue. This may be one of the reasons Craigslist’s revenue fell an estimated 27% from $1 billion reported last year. The fact that Facebook feels competitive in a market of high earnings without charging businesses means that Facebook sees a great deal of potential in selling ad space within this experience. Their business tactics have resulted in a high volume for inventory. With such a high volume of inventory comes a large number of ad spots and a high demand for companies to advertise their products for sale. It makes sense to keep this at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Next - Groups

Groups seemed to be the most functional feature of Facebook, outside the ‘Friend’ social component. Groups connects people with mutual interests, allows them to interact with businesses and creates virtual communities of every scale. In fact, I believe it used to be called Communities… or in 2010 Facebook had both Communities and Groups but nobody knew what the difference was. Either way, Facebook seems to have settled on ‘Groups’ and it’s here to stay.

Post 2018 privacy scandal, Facebook really leaned into ‘Groups’ as they tried to pivot public focus from how user data is being used and the spread of private information, to a focus in connectedness. They launched the campaign “Here Together” that acknowledged they had not been on the right path but were truly committed to connecting people to people – especially people with a variety of different interests. They followed up this idea with their first ever Superbowl Commercial in 2020, titled “More Together,” which revolved around the various types of ‘Groups’ that exist on the platform – ranging from groups focusing on Craft Cocktails to groups promoting Rock Buggies. This change in the navigation highlighting their branded focus is a natural complement to the ad campaign.

This screen is similar to ‘Watch’ in that it’s a dedicated news feed for a particular type of content. However, here the focus is not on the medium, but rather functions as an aggregate for news from the various groups the users are a part of. It has created the opportunity to introduce more users to more groups with a highly visible ‘Suggested Groups’ section – another example of increasing user engagement. The left-side navigation menu provides the opportunity to view more groups. Facebook wants users to make connections in order to keep their users’ good will and stay connected (so they can keep selling ads).

Finally – Gaming

I thought Facebook games died in 2013 with Candy Crush. Turns out – they did (kind of), and Facebook has since pivoted to video games. In June 2018, Facebook launched ‘Facebook Gaming’ in order to capitalize on gaming as a very lucrative spectator sport and compete with the likes of Twitch. By “capitalize,” I mean in advertising – just like in ‘Marketplace,’ [EL1] they don’t charge either the players or the viewers any fees for using the platform, but similar to ‘Marketplace’, they gain profts from advertisement. Twitch has a similar revenue system, and reported $230 million in ad revenue for 2018. However, gamer streaming is in its infancy in terms of how popular and lucrative it has potential to become. 2019 total revenue for esports grew 26% from 2018 and is expected to reach $1.8 billion by 2022. In early 2019, Facebook claimed to have more than 700 million gamers and fans of gamers (Geekwire) and added a tab to their mobile app in order to cater to these fans.

Apparently, it was a very successful tab because this is a lot of prime real estate for this Facebook functionality. According to Business Insider, gamers claim they make more money on Facebook than they do on Twitch, even though it’s a substantially smaller viewership… for now. Facebook has seen this explode, they have created a competitive market, and they know that the demand is there. It’s understandable to want to capitalize on this segment, even if it feels niche to an outsider such as myself. It also fits into their mission for connected community (and their other mission for increasing revenue streams wherever possible).

TL;DR

Facebook seems to have decided, “new decade, new(ish) me”. They updated their user interface to fit into a more approachable feel. They kept their current newsfeed, but are leaning into video content more and more, as well as emphasizing parts of their business that previously felt disjointed from the overall Facebook experience. ‘Marketplace’ is being pushed more, in part because its doing well and in part because that’s a lot of ad space they could be selling. Finally, Facebook is back in the gaming game (although not the nostalgic games we all used to love. I miss you, Farmville). Esports in general are getting bigger and bigger, so this is going to be a huge market if Facebook Gaming continues to grow at the rate they are showing right now.

 It will be interesting to see if any of these changes detract from the community feel of the standard newsfeed, or if different users will start defaulting to a specific screen based on their primary Facebook use. Are we really coming together more, or is Facebook segmenting us further? Time will tell.