facebook folly

facebook's latest "upgrade" is causing headaches for tons of my friends and, gosh darnit, me too. it seems like every time someone sharts now, i'm gonna find out about it in that stupid box on the right side of the page. "donald zechariah rainwater is at target, buying new undies because he crapped his pants." apparently i am now to unsubscribe from all of my friends? individually in order to not be alerted about every single thing they do? or i do? or something? i can't figure it out. this is time-consuming and a pain in my ass. i have over 200 friends, am i really supposed to do this with every one? i didn't ask for any of this. in addition, the messaging system is now bizarre and makes no sense. an endless thread for every message?

also, the overuse of popups is seizure inducing. accidentally hover over a link for too long and all of a sudden, something you didn't want to happen just did. this bit stems from facebook's psychotic quest to cram an insane amount of information and functionality into a tiny space. all this is doing is degrading the experience of using facebook.

--

i left myspace for facebook because myspace had become an unusable monster. it was overrun with hackers, had massive pages that wouldn't load and the interface hindered whatever task i had set about doing to the point where i no longer had any desire to use it. plus, my privacy was at risk. i left friendster for myspace because that website was so incredibly slow, it was unusable. we all left myspace at the same time -- the time when revenue goals trumped usability. rupert murdoch's first major failure.

as an aside, i half read an article in the new york times yesterday on how facebook is trying to move into the realm of defining consumer habits or some crap like that with this latest release and this strategy ties directly into mr. zuckerberg's famous "privacy is over" philosophy. the thing about privacy and facebook is that while you are logged in, with every single website you visit facebook compiles and sells that data to a third party. how do i know this? a co-worker's girlfriend works at the company that buys all of your web-surfing data. that means if you forget to log out and buy yourself a salad shooter, check your bank balance or indulge your daily fetish, this information is in now the public realm. if you think privacy is an issue on facebook with this release, just wait until everyone can see all the sites you visit on some future iteration. “donald zechariah rainwater is on ladyboycentral.com.” like!

--

now, i am not a typical social media user. i am an admitted ux(user experience) snob. though ux is what i do for a living, i like a simple user experience not for any academic requirements, but because i am admittedly not all that bright. things is, the fact that many of my friends, who are smarter and more “typical” users than i am are fed up is interesting. most of these folks came over to facebook from myspace around the same time i did and for the same reason.

when companies enter the phase of placing priority on revenue as opposed to usability, there is no going back. investors must be appeased with more and more cash. and getting this cash means making the user's experience less and less pleasant. the product declines. people go elsewhere. this is how the cycle works.

--

i had a conversation with someone recently about facebook and their position in the industry. they were adamant that facebook will always be on top of the heap and were genuinely confused when i disagreed with them.

look at myspace, dell, microsoft, ebay(dare i say), the american auto industry and other ginormous companies currently in some mode of decline. there is no such thing as consumer loyalty. if there is a “better” product, people will use it. i also think there is a limit to how much people will allow their privacy to be compromised.

every time the top dog slips, there are others waiting to step into the ring, with a simpler and better product. after all, facebook wouldn't be where it is if it hadn't fit that description at the right time. any loss in momentum for a company like this can be catastrophic.

--

don’t get me wrong, i’m not a hater. i really don’t care about facebook, one way or the other. it’s just that, as a user advocate, i would like to remind y’all that if you want your companies to succeed, always give your users / customers / whatever top priority and tell your investors to take a back seat.

link | rss | share | posted: 2011-09-25 15:27:45