One of the striking differences that I noticed in the newer mobile version of facebook is that, the left side slide-in navigation bar has been removed and changed to the right side. It seems that research showed that people were finding it challenging to use the left side navigation with all the links. It was difficult to scroll up and down in the left side. If you think about it, any right handed person will find it easier to scroll on the right side and not the left hand side.
Also, there had been a lot of changes in the right side of the website which is the hotspot for advertisers. It turns out that the chat online availability has better response now that it has been placed on the right side. A few years back, it was on the left side and I remember that I never used to pay attention to it. Also, the news feed has been changed to make it broader and brighter visually.
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| Old News Feed |
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| New News Feed |
So how do we do website usability testing? There are several different ways but the most common way is to set up several tasks like 'Sign up, Add a friend, Post in friend's wall, Add an album etc.,.' for first time users. The tasks are timed and video recorded while users try to finish the tasks. Also, users are asked to fill in questionnaires regarding how they did the tasks. Later, user's reactions, responses are analysed and improvements are made.
Facebook also does lot of usability testing. They conduct video interviews, do questionnaires, conduct tasks for first time users and also they track mouse movements, eye ball movements. They measure mouse movements, eye ball movements for finding hotspots and use information from video interviews, task related interviews to change the design of the website to make it simpler for people to use.
But still, the only part where they will score less in usability according to me is the task that involves user set their privacy settings. Studies show that people of age 20 to 40 find it very frustrating to change privacy settings because it is confusing and also because it keeps changing every few months. It is said that, the most annoying feature in facebook is to set privacy settings for individual albums and photos. Also, first time users get confused with 'Sign in' and 'Sign up' in the first page. It doesn't make sense to keep the sign in button small and sign up button enlarged.
From all I have seen and the efforts that facebook puts into usability testing, they still do need to improve to continue being the #1 in social networking.
References:
[1] https://www.facebook.com/business/news/An-Updated-News-Feed
[2] http://usabilitygeek.com/an-introduction-to-website-usability-testing/
[3] http://usabilitynews.org/usability-evaluation-of-three-social-networking-sites/
[4] http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/06/facebook-is-rolling-out-a-more-simplified-news-feed-with-helveticaarial-fonts-new-cards-bolder-photos/
[5] http://www.usertesting.com/blog/2011/08/05/7-facebook-usability-mistakes/
Thanks for a very interesting and detailed view into why do we have to bear with ever-changing Facebook. I have always wondered why Facebook changes every few days and found it a bit difficult to adjust to new settings. I think the focus is on getting new users and pushing the new features to the existing users to drive revenue. The insight into Facebook user's pain points is a great thing to know and agree with. In all I say a well written article!
ReplyDeleteHi Ismeet,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review. Yes, it makes sense that they have to change to sustain in the long run even if it means frustration for existing users for a few days. They definitely know that users can deal with small changes every few months than making a very big change rarely and lose users. It's good for them that they are trying to keep pace with the users.