I realize that I overreacted a bit about the hurricane last week, and I have come completely full circle this week, after talking with my dad almost every day and looking at pictures of the roof damage, which was not at all what I thought it would be. Call me obsessive, but I like keeping an eye on things at home. Or maybe two, if I’m too busy running into thing with my elbows or somehow compressing my arm into an eternal state of soreness. Thankfully, Friendswood is still protected by the mysterious Quaker charms set into the ground one hundred and fifty years ago, and, I suppose, the ducks near the Clear Brook baseball field (whom I shall call the sacred ducks of Raucous, god of chaos and vicious animals). Lord knows they’d attack anything, up to and including natural phenomena. Stupid ducks.

Still, the buzz about Ike has died down in Austin, and the predominant thing that has people irked (except me — my episodes of annoyance are late by a margin of five to one-hundred and fifty years) is the new Facebook design. All I have to say is, honestly people, it’s not that big of a deal. The site’s function has been improved, it’s still pretty reliable, and it doesn’t look worse. In fact, I’ll even say that it looks better than the old design. This, for me, is the definition of a successful redesign.

What has to be understood is that allowing both the old design and the new design to coexist on different pages would be disastrous. This isn’t MySpace, and thank goodness it isn’t. Who would ever want Facebook to look like that garish, bygone wreck? And because the new design is an improvement over the old, and so much work went into it, why would anyone want to go back? I understand that familiarity is an issue, but Facebook provided a lengthy beta period for people to get acquainted with the design. The reason that I’m not flipping out about it? I’m used to redesigns. They happen all the time, and the only way that a layout ever gets preserved on the internet is being stored in a folder at the back of someone’s server (guilty) or the WayBack Machine. Having gone through so many redesigns of my own, it takes me very little time to get used to a new design. I look through pages, I look at the underbelly, get knee-deep in CSS, and learn to appreciate the work that went into creating a layout that is both new but familiar. And I think that Facebook’s team has succeeded at that. It’s similar enough to the old layout for it to be adopted quickly (anything else would be suicide), and it doesn’t suck. That’s the gist of my argument.

Keep an eye out for these changes:

• Wider layout: Or, as far as I can tell, it looks wider. Also, those weird side borders are gone, so the layout is more open.
• Better organization: I have had no trouble finding the things I need with the new layout, which is why I adopted it so early. Also, I love that cute little navigation bar. SUCH A TINY NAVIGATION BAR.
• Tabbed profiles: This isn’t actually a bad thing, but it could be made better if the Info page was given precedence over the Wall page. I think more people would be interested in reading about a person than reading their conversations with other people. The tabs are a plus and establish a sort of consistency throughout pages. It may also be a precaution against individual pages becoming ridiculously long. Like mine would if I started listing all of the songs I’ve completely fallen in love with over the last month. That list would be fantastic.
• Other fancy profile things: Yay for the status bar and the links above it! Very cool, convenient, and well done!

So please don’t tell me you’re going to stop using Facebook because the site looks different. Now, if it looked anything like this, I would probably rather pay a visit to the sacred ducks of Raucous than adopt the new design. Because that? That is not a design. That is pain, delivered straight to my eyes, via funny tables and bright colors.

Read 3 comments (Leave a comment?)

BrideUnorne said:

to: Admin - If You want to delete your site from my spam list, please sent url of your domain to my e-mail: stop.spam.today@gmail.com And I will remove your site from my base within 24 hours webmastegz

Posted on November 16, 2008 6:34 PM; Permalink

lemaFreette said:

to: Admin - If You want to delete your site from my spam list, please sent url of your domain to my emai: stop.web.spam@gmail.com And I will remove your site from my base within 24 hours webmastegz

PS. As the previous address of an e-mail has been removed also all letters on it have been lost I is compelled to make this dispatch once again. PS2. To send url your site on an e-mail stop.web.spam@gmail.com is a unique way to avoid a spam from me. To write abuses to the various “stop spam” sites - it is useless. PS3. Your addresses of an e-mail are not necessary to me, you can create an e-mail through free service and send me yours url through this e-mail PS4. sorry for my bad English :)

Posted on November 17, 2008 2:40 PM; Permalink

chollable said:

to: Admin - If You want to delete your site from my spam list, please visit this site for instructions: stopspam.idoo.com

Posted on November 20, 2008 11:18 PM; Permalink