Facebook Changes, And Future Changes

Unless you're blind or been under a rock, chances are you've noticed some changes to Facebook's user interface. These changes have caused an uproar among its users who have made it quite clear they don't like nor do they want the changes. The new News Feed and 'ticker' are ruining some users' experience, and they simply want them to go away. Oh and lump the new Subscribe button in there too.

I completely understand Facebook wanting to constantly improve its users' social network experience where the user can have access to endless streams of information, but where the company goes wrong with rolling out major changes like this is it just springs new changes on its users, instead of taking a more subtle approach. A couple of things Facebook could do to make their roll out of changes go a little more smoothly are:

• Invite users to beta test the changes- similar to how Twitter introduced it's new layout; they gave the users time to tinker with the new layout and revert back to the old one for a time until they got used to the new one.
• Listen to your users- you may want to introduce the social network to an idea that may seem to be the greatest idea in the world, but what good is it if users don't want it? 

Even if the changes are inevitable, at least make the users feel as if they had a chance to voice their opinions. Facebook really needs to be careful and consider how it approaches introducing new features and stay in-tuned with its users likes and dislike because there is little room for error with Google+ waiting to snatch up disgruntled Facebook users. Facebook is on top of the world, but so was Myspace at one point in time.

@ITSecPro