The News feed is considered to be the most popular feature on Facebook, with it being what most first turn-to for updates, as soon as they log in.
However, perhaps in an attempt to curtail the feature, Facebook’s previous condensed version simply had most in an exasperated state, at having to sift through it to locate certain posts. With the jumbled up feature being one of our only means at receiving updates, trying to keep up was equivalent to the tried-and-tested excuse of ‘letters getting lost in the mail.’
Now, in order to tidy up the mess, Facebook has come up with their latest version of the News feed feature, with the hopes of creating a more effortless experience for their users. The new look is heavily image-centric and influenced by mobile-designs.
With the current trend revolving primarily around image content, over the earlier text, Facebook has decided to keep up with the changing times, and convert their News feed in accordance. It has now dedicated over 50% of the feature to images, much higher than the previous 25%.
So, from now on, updates on the Newsfeed, will comprise of bigger images to attract the attention of the viewer. Regardless of whether the post is a photo, video, article, or a status update, it will be represented by a large image, with text taking a backseat for now.
Another tweak in the feature would be its series of categories. No longer will posts be presented in a compiled, jumbled manner. From here on forward, the various updates will be organized on the basis of friends, those you’re following, games, photos, and music. This way, you know where to look, to locate a certain post.
The music category will comprise of updates from your favorite musicians, songs your friends are listening to, and even list the musical events taking place around your area. Photos, will consist of images posted by your friends, the group you’re following, and even those posted from Instagram.
As convenient as this may be for users, companies are less enthused over the segregation of posts in the News feed. Where, earlier Facebook users were subjected to scroll through updates from friends and companies alike, now, they have the option to customize their feeds to not include those from the latter.
Another modification implemented by Facebook was on the display of its various other navigational elements like, Messages, Events, Browse, Photos, and all. Rather than being scattered all across the page as it previously was, now they’ve all been brought together under a sleek black bar running down the left of the display. These elements are represented by icons, to minimize the space occupied by them.
Facebook’s latest series of tweaks have yet to be made available to its users the world over, with only a selective few volunteers testing it out at the moment.
This is a guest post by Jena Branch of Buycox.com, a site that offers savings and current information on cox cable packages.