Rachel Begg
Get ready because Facebook has decided to redesign our news feeds again! Before you freak out and go on strike, just remember that once you get used to it "every little thing is going to be alright." Lucky for us, they are just updating their look to be a little more modern and trying to stay in front of the latest trends of large photos and fonts and leaving the rest of it alone.
Facebook announced this new overhaul just over one year ago and has been testing it since then. The people testing it found that the full overhaul of the news feed was more difficult to navigate but they loved the new larger photos. So thankfully they decided against the complete redesign and decided to just go with a few minor changes to how your news feed is viewed rather than making us all start from scratch (again).
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What does this mean?
They didn't change any of the content or how it will rank in your feed, these subtle visual updates include:
- Larger images that span the entire news feed (who doesn't like larger photos)
- New font that they made a little larger (and easier to read)
- Slight design tweaks to icons on the "update status" and the "add photos/videos" tabs across the top
- Minor color changes for the background
- Larger buttons added to the "people you may know" section along the right rail
Here is the "old" and current news feed that most of you still see:
Here is the shiny new news feed that you all have to look forward to:
This gives it a very clean look and feel and will also help people that have a hard time seeing thier computer [like me] because they need glasses to read this itty bitty font. The new look will not affect the way that your news feed is layed out for content and ads will all stay the same. "These changes are visual updates and do not affect how we surface content to people, nor do they change how stories are ranked in News Feed. Though in the new design all images are larger, both organic stories and ads will be the same size — similar to the way images appear on mobile." - Facebook As a marker on Facebook you will not need to change anything that you are doing. If you are participating in paid advertising then you shouldn't worry because all requirements for creative specs and image aspect ratios haven't changed.
The updated design has the best of both worlds and should translate smoothly into the Facebook community. All trends seem to be heading to a simple and minimalist look. Facebook is just trying to hop on that bandwagon by and using modern fonts. I believe there will be positive feedback from the new users that will be experiencing in in the upcoming weeks. It will obviously be an adjustment as a marketer that uses social media often, but I can totes handle it!
Do you have the new news feed yet? If so, tell us what you think.