Facebook Redesigned, Brings Simpler Homepage

Just three months after it had last redesigned its homepage, Facebook has done it again. And in less than six months, Facebook has given yet another facelift to its homepage. However, this time, the change aims to make the Facebook homepage more search friendly and interactive by hooking navigational elements in that page itself.

Just when users had got accustomed with the homepage UI enhancements, an uninformed change arrives. Facebook and the community backlash is expected just like everytime when homepage redesign occurs. Again, Facebook has been known for making UI changes overnight and then face heat from its user community. The new 'simplified' home is visible only to select users and more 80 million users will get to see the change in a day or two. We believe many Facebook addicts will get shock when they log in and find their page messed up. Yes, by messed up, we mean messed up!

Major emphasis in the new design is on search which is obvious from the long search box right in the center on the top of Facebook Home Page. Jing, a Facebook engineer, wrote about the new changes at the official Facebook blog, "Over the past few months, we've been testing several different designs of the home page to improve navigation to and discovery of commonly used features. Today, we started rolling out the most recent navigation updates to help you find what you are looking for on Facebook. Now from the top and left menus you can quickly get to what's new and important."

The entire Top Menu has been shuffled such a way that it will baffle anyone for the first time. The top right text which led users to Home page, Profiles, Messages are now replaced by Icons for Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications. Now, the Account and Profile information of the user can be found on the top left corner.

Other core and widely used features like News feed, Events, Photos and Friends have been be clubbed together just below user photo on the right most column. Apparently, the Friends box has been removed.

Just below the Core features lies a box of the user bookmarked applications like Farmville, Mafia Wars, Sudoku and other game applications. This box would serve as short cut to most favorite and frequently used applications.

Just like Gmail and Yahoo list online contacts for Chat, Facebook went ahead to follow the same norm. Now, the chat list appears in right most column instead of the left end corner of the frame. Inspite of this, the chat would still appear on the bottom left corner of the Facebook page.

For the confused and lost souls, Facebook has prepared a Site Tour guide which can be checked out here. We believe that Facebook as a social network can still do a lot better. Here are a few of our thoughts on deserved features.

Leave us a comment and let us know if you are happy with the redesign or not.