Facebook Updates Its Photo Experience To Be More “Immersive” In News Feed, Timeline And Albums

 

Today, Facebook has announced sweeping design changes to its News Feed, along with a total overhaul of its Photo experience. Photos are a huge part of what makes Facebook so engaging, and the company says that this new design is more “immersive.” Basically, the design highlights your photographs in the News Feed, your Timeline and Photo Albums.
Photos from third-party apps like Pinterest and Instagram are also getting a better treatment, with larger and better-highlighted images. Additionally, photos that show up with location check-ins will get more love.

“In the new design, we’re making sure that this media type is front and foremost” said Julie Zhou, Product Design Manager at Facebook. What we’re being shown is what Facebook calls a “richer, simpler” Facebook experience over all devices, including desktop. This consistency is key, as it’s something that Facebook has struggled with in the past.

Facebook’s reason for acquiring Instagram has never been clearer. Photos are the entry point into so many people’s Facebook’s experience. For example, being tagged in a Facebook photo is one of the main hooks that keeps people coming back. It’s difficult not to click a link in the email you get when you’re tagged.

mobile-inspired FACEBOOK

Today, VP of Product, Chris Cox discussed Facebook’s new-found focus on design consistency, something the company calls “mobile-inspired.” Today, with its News Feed and Photo redesign, you’ll notice consistency no matter what device you’re on. This hasn’t always been the case for Facebook.

The idea of “desktop only” design seems to be dead, at least at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park. It’s all about mobile. What does that mean exactly? It means a more intimate experience, more responsive to touch and clicks, and way less clutter.

“Now you can get to any page on Facebook to any other page on Facebook without going to your home page” said Cox. The best designers in the world say that to make people engage with a product, you have to make the “tech” disappear. That is of course done with beautiful and responsive design, and that’s the approach that Facebook is taking.

One example of why Facebook had to take this approach is that Cox said 35% of Facebook users on the web never see the chat bar on the right hand side because of their browser width, so the company was missing out on a lot of message traffic because of that. The new responsive web design will fix that.


These changes will roll out on the web today and then to mobile devices in the coming months. The roll out will be very slow, to make sure that the company gets incremental feedback.


The rallying cry for the day at Facebook? “Goodbye Clutter.”


Ads weren’t discussed at all, which is where I find that most of the clutter is. It will be interesting to see how advertisements evolve with this new design, and if we’ll see more of them. The definition of “clutter” is subjective, so we’ll see if Facebook’s definition will delight its over one billion users.

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Mark Zuckenberg shuts the rumours of facebook mobile

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied rumours that the company is working with HTC to produce self-branded smartphone with an exclusive operating system.


Zuckerberg made it clear that the company is working on dramatically improving the mobile Facebook experience, and that’s probably exactly what all that former Apple talent is working on. Beyond improving the experience for users, Zuck needs to focus on making sure Facebook’s core is profitable now that he’ll be reporting earnings publicly on  a quarterly basis. He’ll happily let other companies continue pumping out new phones. Companies like HTC, who turned out the Salsa and ChaCha with deep Facebook integration.



At the company's first-ever earnings call, Zuckerberg said that “it would not really make much sense” to build a Facebook phone. He further pointed out that Facebook is most used app on all platforms, therefore every phone out there is a Facebook phone.
Zuckerberg's comments are likely to put an end to all sorts of speculations related to Facbeook developing self-branded phone.

Technofreakss.Blogspot.com

Recently, Bloomberg reported that Facebook and HTC were working closely on the Facebook phone, slated to launch mid-2013. The report further said the phone was supposed to launch this year but then the release was pushed back to give HTC more time to work on other phones.
Back in April, HTC was rumoured to be working on a Facebook phone with an 'exclusive operating system'. Another rumour surfaced in May saying the phone will be released next year.