Facebook’s new design was thrown out because of old netbooks
Last year Facebook announced a new design which focused on the timeline, and looked beautiful. The current newsfeed looks cluttered and outdated compared to other sites that have adopted more slick and modern look. The new look was never rolled out, and recently was shelved for good. The reason wasn’t ads or that users hated the design, but the new look worked best with higher-end computers like the Macbook Pro Retina.
Facebook desicion is a hard one considering that many users complain of the cluttered look of the site. While Facebook has attempted smaller updates to the design its still nothing compared to the design announced last year. Dustin Curtis, an entrepreneur, assumed Facebooked ditched the design because the users focused to much on the feed and didn’t deliver enough ads.
It turns out, while I (and maybe you as well have sharp, stunning super high-resolution 27-inch monitors, many more people in the world do not, Zhuo said. Low-res, small screens are more common across the world than hi-res Apple or Dell monitors. And then old design we tested didn’t work very well on a 10-inch Netbook. A single story might not even fit on the viewport. Not to mention, many people who access the website every day only use Facebook through their PC—no mobile phones or tablets.
The design may have even boasted ad revenue, but if the design didn;t work on older machine most people would have complained. “The old design was worse for many of the things we value and try to improve,” Zhuo said. Maybe in the near future Facebook will redesign the newsfeed to better fit everyones computers, and one that looks much better.
Tell us in the comments below what you thought about the design announced last year.