As most of you would probably remember, around mid-May of this year, Cheb 2.0 blogged about the upcoming design and functional changes to Facebook! – Well, I am pleased to report that we are getting very close! With just over a few days to go, and Facebook slowly begining to phase in the new changes, we now have a clearer picture of excactly what we are in for.

Let’s get cracking and check out the upcoming changes to the ‘book.

New Facebook Profile Page

The new Facebook Profile page is pretty wicked, if I do say so myself! Not only is the design still minimal, yet intriguing – but it is very functional and still has that touch of Facebook-y goodness to it which have kept Facebook in the same group as Apple and other leading sites which take a heavy focus on web design!

Check out our screenshot of the new profile page.

Facebook Profile Page

As you can see if you click on the screenshot to the left, there are quit a bit of functional differences between the current, or old(er) style profile page and the updated, shinier profile page.

Some of the most prominent changes include:

1. Complete re-design of web page as well as header and footer.

2. Tab-based system to access profile content such as Wall, Info, Photos and Boxes (which essentially are all the applications that are not displayed on the front page), and a “+” button so you can add a new tab from your applications (shown below).

Facebook info tab showing 'Add a new tab'

3. A bunch more interactivity with Facebook now allowing you to make a lot more changes ‘off’ your current page as opposed to going into your profile’s ‘Edit’ screen to do so. This includes such things as allowing you to edit ‘About me’ information, as well as ‘Networks’ off the profile page.

4. Status messages have now been given the space they deserved from the start, as well as the ability to ‘Add Photos’, ‘Add Video’, ‘Share Link’, ‘Write’ and more (again, based on applications installed) – See below for an animated GIF.

Facebook header preview (animated)

Facebook’s new friends page

The Friends page has been redesigned and re-formatted as well. The coolest gadget to be found on this page is the new ‘Friend Lists’ feature. Facebook says that you can now “easily organize your friends into convenient lists for messaging, invites, and more. You can create whatever kinds of lists you want; all lists are private”. It’s a pretty neat little feature that will make it a lot easier for you to manage a ‘distribution list’ of some sorts which will make your life easier on the long run if you message lots of your friends, for example. I can see this developing into a ‘Friends’, ‘Work Mates’, and ‘Annoying People’ type list! Here’s one I just created called “Test”.

Facebook's new friends list

Facebook’s new homepage

Facebook‘s new homepage (when a member logs in) is very much similar to the original, current design – however it is a lot more cleaner and functional in terms of physical separation of related content and sections. There is now a main right-side navigation which contains all the usual stuff like ‘Who poked you’, or ‘Upcoming Birthdays’, as well as any requests or user updates as well as status updates in general that flow through.

The main content area is simply a listing page showcasing in a Facebook v1.0 style gallery of upcoming uploaded photos and videos, as well as the usual array of friendly updates.

Overall, there are quite a few more cool additions such as Facebook now allowing you to decide how ‘The Wall’ is organised. In essence, you can decide if each new update/addition, such as you uploading four photos, are shown on one line, short, or full views classed as “Story Options”.

Click on the screenshot below for a bigger view.

Facebook's new homepage

So there you have it guys – in again with another exclusive review of the new changes to the new Facebook redesign. Hope you’ve enjoyed this post. I’m sure you’re going to love the changes that are in store for you as soon as the new profiles begin to roll-out sometime this week or next.

Till next time, subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on new posts. For an up close look yourself, login to the preview page here.

Edit: This article is linked to an article which has recently been posted. Read more about “Facebook redesign: The countdown begins“.

From somewhat of a smallish leak to a full-on development cycle to get it going; Facebook is currently in the process of redesigning the Facebook social network. Whilst it isn’t a full-on re-brand, per say – there will be elements such as the start page, the profile page and feed pages which will change!

Why is Facebook redesigning the site?

Whilst they aren’t necessarily redesigning the entire site; Facebook is changing important sections such as the ‘Profile’ in an attempt to clean up the clutter which is being produced by over 25,000 applications ranging from ‘blood sucking vampires’ to ‘am I hot or not’. We all know how annoying some applications can sometimes be, and in particularly how cluttered up they make our profile look.

Since its creation, Facebook has been a shining ‘beacon’ of “What to do” on a major portal/social network. They got the usability right, the site was easy to use and it even looked simple and clean – the direct opposite of Facebook’s biggest competitor; MySpace. So what happens when developers are allowed to build applications which get in the way of such as mantra of excellent web design? You re-design, of course!

Let’s take a look at some of the proposed changes and what you could stand to lose/gain from them. As always, you can click on the images for a larger-sized view.

The Feed and Wall Tabs

To start off with, as you can see, the proposed change to the main profile page (i.e. when you click on ‘Profile’) is to clear up all that clutter left by all your applications flowing down the left-side gutter of the page as well as in the content area as well.

If Facebook has their way, you will expect to see that sort of change on this page.

The changes to this page include:

1. The status message, e.g. “Cheb is now partying”, or in this case “Holly is at school” is shown directly under the profile photo and not directly under the name, as currently is.
2. There is now somewhat of a secondary menu/navigation which is tab-structured allowing you to jump to different ‘views’ of your/or someone else’s profile.
3. The new view allows you to directly post information such as a link or photo off the sub-section in the secondary nav.
4. The ‘Feed’ view, i.e. the current page – above, will combine both the current feed page as well as the wall. What that means is there is no current way to filter either or – and it also means that the normal view, or the ‘Feed’ view will show both; other people leaving wall posts for you and your updates at the same time.

Secondly, the view to the left shows what would happen when someone clicks on the ‘Wall’ tab.

As you can see, no major changes there except that you will be able to remove the ‘Wall’ tab at anytime but the ‘Feed’ tab has to stay put! This makes sense, considering the Feed tab will show both types of inputs – whilst, for good usability, having another tab for just that type of content, i.e. ‘Wall’ is a great idea and kudos to Facebook for setting it up that way.

The new publishing system

The publishing system will be the centralized spot to add a wall post, post a video or photo, as well as post a link to your feed/profile.

I believe that as a user adds new applications which present more ways to post content, such as ‘send a gift’ or anything of the sort, they should be added to the tabs which currently stand at ‘Wall Post’, ‘Video’ and ‘Post a Link’.

Overall, I think this is a great way to combine content into categorically-linked sections. I am not a huge fan of combining the wall posts with the feed, but the structure and navigation for getting to places as well as ‘publishing’ content is possibly second to none! Let’s just say that we can’t even begin to compare it to MySpace!

The applications view

Ahh, where would we be without our much-loved applications? Well, with a wall and notes, I guess! Anyway, the cool news is that there is no way applications are being eradicated or anything – quite the contrary! They will be given their own tab, or view if Facebook has any say in it! Let’s check out the proposed changes:

Hrrmmm! There’s quite a bit to contemplate on this view. Whilst being a working title, I don’t know what Facebook is thinking calling this page ‘Boxes’! I think it was some insider joke or something of the sort, because the first application in the main content area is ‘Family Tree’ with quite a bit of boxes! [Or was it a publicity stunt?!?] *conspiracy conspiracy*

I quite like the idea of zoning out the applications into their own section – after all, it really is those applications that started to clutter things everywhere on Facebook.

The name ‘Boxes’ has to go! No two buts about it. However, what would be cool is if Facebook allowed users to call this what they liked; for example, ‘My Appz’ or ‘My Stuff’ – however, you could see why this would be a problem when people start calling it ‘Fo Shizzle’ or ‘Crack Pipe’ – which absolutely make no sense whatsoever! [Yes, I can be weird at times!]

I think Facebook will eventually just call this ‘Applications’ or ‘My Applications’ – leaning towards the former.

Conclusion

So there you go guys – another design review/did you know style of post! Hope you liked the review and more importantly enjoyed seeing the changes that Facebook should be implementing very soon.

To have your say on the matter, feel free to send an email to profilespreview@facebook.com with the subject heading: ‘Feedback on the new Profile’ or join the group.

Drop us a comment and let the community know what you think; share this post with a friend and make sure to subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t yet for further updates.

In what seems to be another way for Social networking giant Facebook to keep ahead of the trends, Facebook has rolled out the brand spanking new chat toolbar.

Everyone knows that ‘The Wall’ and ‘Inbox’ have been the primary ways to communicate – but what happens when you’re making plans for lunch for example, or you need the answer to question 2(a) on that Physics exam that you just happen to be taking online! Facebook Chat of course.

So how does Facebook chat work?

The premise is simple, when you log in next to your Facebook account, you should notice the new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser – ‘no installation or assembly required’. It is from this very slick, a-la-Facebook style bar that you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with them.

Unlike the Wall or Inbox, the messages are delivered and displayed to your friend as soon as they’re sent – meaning a real-time chat experience.

The cool thing about Facebook Chat is basically what has gotten Facebook as an online giant to where it is today – usability. It acts like a real chat application should! You can close chat windows, hide chat windows, go offline so your boss doesn’t see you and change application settings.

The screen shot below shows that I’m online (green circle on the far right next to my profile silhouette), I have six friends online and one of my friends, whom I was chatting to has now gone offline. The traffic-light colour system can’t go wrong!

Another cool little feature is that your notifications now arrive in the Chat bar, and while chatting you’ll see your friend’s Mini-Feed activity thrown into the conversation – as it happens in real-time! Cool ayh?

Facebook, having dealt with many issues on privacy in the past – Beacon, anyone? says that conversations on Facebook Chat are completely secure and private; and whilst Facebook tracks chat messages across sessions and pages, apparently they don’t log any chats on their servers.

Somethings that I really liked included the title of the page changing to say ‘New message from Friend’ when you receive a message, as well as the bar slightly ‘nudging’ whenever you receive a new message (although I think this is still a little buggy on Firefox 2)

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what else comes off this technology – but one thing’s for certain; Facebook know how to do those little things that keep making their offering special. It certainly keeps people coming back to see what’s new.

Based on the quick ten minute session I had to play around with it – one thing was certain: It’s nothing special in the world of online chat, which has now been around for at east ten years. However, one thing it is – is usable, smart and a perfect extension to the overall look and feel which Facebook is trying to master.
Till next time,

Cheb.

Founded in 2004, the ‘social utility’ affectionately known to just about everyone you know as Facebook, run from Palo Alto in the United States was valued at no less than $US15 billion ($AUD 16.36 billion), and whilst only trading for a relatively short-lived four years employs 300 staff. One would think Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft would be over the moon today. His bid to win a stake in other successful Web 2.0 endeavours such as Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc. and YouTube were battles lost to Google Inc. By sealing the deal, Microsoft could finally say they have a stake in Web 2.0; because if the past is anything to go by, previous Web 2.0 endeavours by the Redmond-based company such as Spaces and the Zune Marketplace have experienced fairly insignificant take-off speeds.

Its not rocket science to see that Microsoft has a lot to win with the Facebook deal. According to Wikipedia, during its fiscal year ending in June, Microsoft’s online ad revenue rose just 21 percent to $1.84 billion compared to Google’s ad revenue soaring 64 percent to $13.3 billion – Clearly meaning owning a stake in Facebook is a big deal for ‘William’ and his mates.

If nothing else, at least finally the big fish have realised the importance that Web 2.0 plays in today’s information-packed world. Will this lead to Google giving up on their own social network – Orkut? I guess it’ll all be revealed sooner rather than later.

How much do you think this will change what we know and love about Facebook?Was it worthwhile for Facebook as much as it obviously was for Microsoft? Let us know your views.