New Facebook Picture Chat – Facebook Thinks We’re Idiots
Two similar but significant changes over the past week highlight the direction Facebook is moving when it comes to User Experience (how the user interacts with a web-based environment).
Picturfication?
Facebook rolled out two separate changes to the extremely important chat interface. While some users simply log on Facebook and examine or comment other’s profiles, many people’s primary use of Facebook is its chat feature. Facebook chat consists of 3 main sections:
- The sidebar friends list available on your “Home” page
- The friends list always available on the bottom right portion of your screen
- The chat box itself
Over the past week, Facebook has “Picturfied” the sidebar friends list and the chat box. Let’s examine the changes in further detail.
The Chat Box
Last week, the chat box looked like so:
The components of the chat box included:
- The name and picture of the person you’re chatting with on top of the chat box
- The name of the person who sent the last message in chat
- An option to clear the chat history
- Options to close or minimize the chat box on the top right
- Time stamps
- Option to close the chat box on the bottom right hand portion of the screen
- The ability to browse through chat boxes using the tab key
The chat box was sufficient and provided all the tools necessary to execute a plain-text conversation.
However, enter this week and the new Facebook chat box.
The changes include:
- Removal of the minimize indicator (-) in the top right (The user is expected to know clicking on the blue bar’s empty space minimizes the window)
- Removal of the close indicator (x) in the top right
- Replaced the name of the person in chat with their picture
- Removed ability to browse through chat what with tab key
Observations
The central dogma of User Experience design is removing the unnecessary. Notice in the list of changes how many times I used the word “remove”. Generally speaking, removing bits of information from view declutters the interface. While in theory the new Facebook chat box is more minimalist due to its decreased functionality, it actually appears less sophisticated and more cluttered due to its new picture-chat style. Facebook believes the average user needs a visual reminder of who they’re talking to every time a message is exchanged. Seeing the profile picture along with the name once at the top of the chat box sufficed. Seeing profile pictures over and over again in chat is simply obnoxious (and mildly insulting to the average user’s intelligence).
The Sidebar Friends List
The sidebar friends list was only just recently introduced, and had simple yet useful features including the profile pictures, names, and availability of online friends.
However, to keep consistent with the Picturfication theme, Facebook changed this interface as well.
Observations
Facebook has stripped everything away except a tiny thumbnail of the profile picture. Now the user can no longer see the names of their online friends without mousing over the thumbnails. Additionally, the green and gray availability icons are extremely hard to see since they reside within the thumbnails themselves. In the event a friend changes their profile picture or has a profile picture set to something other than their face, you may not realize they’re online.
Conclusion
While I whole-heartedly agree that a user should not have to work hard at all to enjoy the use of an interface, I believe Facebook has pushed this ideology to the extreme, incidentally diminishing the User Experience they aimed to enhance.
How do you feel about the new Facebook Chat changes?
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I really dont like the new facebook chat. I seriously CANNOT tell who is online and who isnt by the little green and grey boxes. Also, in the chat bubble, I hate that they have taken away the time stamp and the name of the person and replaced it with just the profile picture. It frustrates me greatly.
I agree wholeheartedly. The new chat style is very minimalist, even more so than it should be. I can’t tell who I’m talking to anymore by glancing, and that’s all it should take on a good UI.
I know it might be a small change to a very insignificant part of your life, but who needs unnecessary stress building up by trying to find out what the hell that picture is and who’s saying “whats up?” I know that I don’t.
Also, wtf timestamp? Why would you NOT have one of those?
@Hayley
“I can’t tell who I’m talking to anymore by glancing, and that’s all it should take on a good UI.”
That’s exactly right. Which brings up another point: You can actually see the timestamps of the chat. You have to mouse over the chat to view the timestamp. I only stumbled across that by luck, and luck should never be a part of a UI.
I noticed these changes recently too. I didn’t like that they changed the sidebar names to pictures. I thought, “Well, now I’ll never know who is online by looking over there now.” I don’t recognize most people by picture; mostly by name. Maybe that’s not true for most people.
As for the chat, I think the pictures are kind of silly too. I liked names better personally, because again, I identify people based on name.
Thanks for stopping by, Ryan. I function in a similar way as you, so I feel your annoyance.
I feel rather indifferent about the new chat because I rarely chat on FB.
However, I’m irritated by how often FB issues changes on their website. Seems like once ever few months, they go through another round of changes, move things around and confuse a lot of people.
But whatever. I always adjust. =)
Helpful blog, bookmarked the website with hopes to read more!
Thanks for the bookmark!
There is one obvious reason that helped move to this approach, FB wants to bring people back to using their pics as profile pictures as that is what other people will rely on to communicate with you. Nowadays people use anything on their profile pics, and FB started moving away from being the “FACEbook” it used to be.
Thanks for stopping by, Ivan. While I do see your reasoning, I don’t believe the new facebook chat solves the issue you bring up at all. Users aren’t going to change profile pictures based solely on the new chat. Users, by now, have adapted to the new system, and have memorized each other’s profile pictures. My claim was they shouldn’t have had to go through that process in the first place.
this is the stupidest chat box ever..
I love u
Agree with everything you said. There’s another 2 puzzles that are bugging me in this chat thing. Why is it that some people’s photos show in the left-hand photo jigsaw and only some of them have a green square. That is, what are the other ones? Are they people who are online but don’t wish to chat? People on mobiles? Random people? I can’t find the answer anywhere. And secondly the photo jigsaw is often different from the chat list on the right hand side: different people appear online at any given point, if you look at these two chats. Perhaps someone here has a clue?