Team meeting on whiteboard

Since April 2019, Facebook has had a new ‘all-white’ design. It is the first time since it’s launch in 2004 that it has veered away from its blue colourings. In those 15 years, it’s fair to say that Facebook has played with the concept of ‘what design means’, but it seems that they have committed to this overhaul.

We use Facebook a LOT here – so we are trying to get our heads around these changes as much as anyone! In this blog, Big Gun Digital take a look at the evolution of the Facebook design and what the new look means for the company.

Facebook and their traditional approach to design

In order to understand Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with engaging design, we need to talk about Sean Parker. Parker and Zuckerberg co-founded Napster, a ‘sometimes legal, sometimes not so much‘ music sharing service. It was back in 2005 when Facebook was still a fledgeling bird venturing out of the Harvard nest when Parker and Zuckerberg attended a now infamous design meeting. In this meeting, a then-21-year-old Zuckerberg allegedly began the meeting with a sceptical question: “Tell me…guys, what is ‘design’?”.

Parker, the man who was reportedly an early inspiration for the young Zuckerberg called Facebook “a social validation feedback loop.” He added, “It’s exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators, it’s me, it’s Mark… understood this consciously and we did it anyway.” So Parker saw Napster ripped apart and then wasn’t a fan of Facebook. Hardly surprising, but surely this is more than just sour grapes?

Facebook old ‘blue’ design did undergo many tweaks over the years. These changes have generally gone along with technological advancements – notably when the dedicated iOS app was released in 2010. This can also be said for the release of location data, panorama, 360 and 3D functionalities. But the look and feel, the brand of Facebook, has always remained something of a constant.

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Design Updates and Constant Changes

In 2016, Facebook moved the icons – Newsfeed, Profile, Notifications, etc – from the top of the screen to the bottom. What followed was a couple of years of constant changes – these icons would move around, change order, disappear and reappear seemingly every time you logged on! Facebook said this was to keep things fresh. However, the message was clear – ‘if we keep moving stuff about, people log on to see what’s going on as much as to see content’. Perhaps Parker was right about Zuckerberg’s take on Human Psychology.

The new ‘all-white’ design

Today in 2019, Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet, of course. It has over 2.38 billion active users per month.  They have any number of people employed specifically dedicated to the look, feel and brand of Facebook. So this latest incarnation of the Facebook user experience feels somewhat… cynical.

This cynicism can be felt in the deftest of ways. The row of icons at the bottom of the app is the main menu. These icons are the way you navigate around the app. They are unlabelled and low contrast. It can be tricky to tell some of them apart. The difference between ‘Profile’ (one person icon in a circle) and ‘Groups’ (three smaller people in a circle) can catch you out. This makes it awful to use. But usability isn’t the point. These dull icons are a mere background for something more important.

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Facebook and Notifications

If you spend more than 30 seconds on Facebook, you will see one or more tomato-red dots appear at the bottom of the screen. This is now the brightest thing in your eye line. The dot (my editor stopped me from putting “blood-red” to avoid further negative connotation!) is a notification. A notification functions like a being awarded a prize. They are a sugar-coated treat that taste like reward and validation. When you enter the Facebook app, the first job is to clear these notifications by seeing what Facebook want you to see. This might be a video, activity in your group or actually something to do with you!

This desire for reward is further reinforced by the app’s insistence on a ‘swipe-down’ refresh motion. In 2019, apps are more than capable of refreshing themselves. They do not need you to do it manually. So how on earth does Facebook not know this?

Oh trust me, they do.

It’s a mechanism designed to keep you on the app. Refresh to see if any further blood, sorry, tomato red dots have appeared. Which they will have to repeat the feedback loop. From a technical perspective, the gesture is completely redundant. But the motion’s creator Loren Brichter admits that “pull-to-refresh is addictive”. “To maximise addictiveness,” says Tristan Harris of the Centre for Humane Technology, “all tech designers need to do is link a user’s action (like pulling a lever) with a variable reward.”

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Suddenly it seems that Parker was onto something – Zuckerberg knew this back in 2005. But it took some time to implement to its devilish best.

The new Facebook Design: is it all bad?

Well… no. I started this piece by saying that we love Facebook. and we do. We offer many Social Media Marketing Packages and we work every day with the platform. Social Media is addictive. Facebook is addictive. We know this. It is my fervent belief that even despite this, the ability of people to break this loop is good enough for real life to win the day in the end.

The labyrinth of Facebook is a good thing for content creators. Keeping people on the platform is a good thing for smaller businesses who can get their 5 minutes in the sun, around the swimming pool and bar that normally only allows the riches of the big boys.

If you would like to chat about the new look Facebook. Or about anything in the digital marketing landscape, why not give us a shout? Big Gun Digital is a successful and growing agency based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. There’s nothing we love more than to grab a coffee and a slice of cake to have a chat about what you need. Plus, our flexible monthly retainers are designed to make it easier for you to get what your business needs.

biggundigital.co.uk/

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