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Thursday, September 11th, 2008 by Andy Beal

75% of Facebook Users Reject New Design; Facebook Forces it on them Anyway!

UPDATE: Clearly I suck. As many commenters have pointed out, 75% of Facebook users kept the new version. Still 60% didn’t even want to try the new version, so that still says a lot. Thanks to those who pointed out the error!

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Let me ask you something. If you rolled out a new design for your web site and 75% of your site users told you they preferred the original design, would you:

a) Scrap the new design?

b) Ask your users to provide input on a better design?

c) Force the new design on them anyway?

If you’re a savvy business owner, you probably went with either a) or b) or perhaps both. If you happen to be the management at Facebook, you would have chosen c)…apparently:

To date, approximately 40 million, or 40 percent, of Facebook users have tried the beta version of the new site, which debuted in July. Of that group, 75 percent remained with the new version, according to the company.

As for the roughly 25 percent of Facebook users who did not continue with the beta version of the site, they’ll need to go along with the new redesign as it’s fully rolled out over the next few weeks–whether they like it or not.

You could argue that social networking users are always reluctant to change, but I would disagree. Yahoo just revealed a new version of Flickr and I love it.

What do you think? Will Facebook users eventually learn to love the new design, or has Facebook made a big error with the rollout of a new design that 75% of people hated?

PS. Keep in mind that 60% of Facebook users weren’t interested at all in a new design. ;-)

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32 comments on “75% of Facebook Users Reject New Design; Facebook Forces it on them Anyway!”

  1. iPod Fan Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Don’t try and fix what’s not broken. Users liked Facebook because of it’s simple design. So they decide to move away from simplicity to this. It’s barmy in my opinion.

    John

  2. Joshua Sciarrino Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 11:02 am

    “Will Facebook users eventually learn to love the new design, or has Facebook made a big error with the rollout of a new design that 75% of people hated?”

    No. I just joined a group on FB with close to 800,000 people ‘against the new facebook’. 20 of my friends joined it. Not only that, we seem to be adamantly against the new design. With a Digg hitting hott and a few other promotions.

    FB should seriously reconsider pissing off their users. Not good.

    Joshua Sciarrino’s last blog post..Happy Birthday Google

  3. Jamie Lin Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 11:34 am

    I actually like the look and feel of the new design but feel they’ve gone too far in hiding apps, both their boxes from people’s profiles, now they’re installed to boxes tab by default, which no profile visitors would bother to tab over to, and their feeds from facebook home.

    i think the end result is there will be less apps being installed as (good) app discovery becomes harder, which will end up hurting the entire eco-system.

    as far as app pages are concerned, even though the new design moved all left hand navigation to top, it doesn’t free up horizontal space for apps as facebook ended up stuffing 2 banner ads on the right. so space constraint will still be there to make developing good apps that need more screen real estate harder — again, hurting the eco-system.

    so at the end of day, i think if facebook wants to focus on being a platform player, they should re-think on how to make things easier for their app developers!

  4. Dan Graham Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    If 75% of people stayed with the new version, wouldn’t that mean that 75% preferred the new one over the old one and not the other way around? I think I’m confused by the quote you have vs your title and article topic?

    “To date, approximately 40 million, or 40 percent, of Facebook users have tried the beta version of the new site, which debuted in July. Of that group, 75 percent REMAINED with the NEW version, according to the company.”

  5. SEO forums Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    this will have a long-term negative impact on facebook user number

    SEO forums’s last blog post..How to increase the speed of search in MySQl database ?

  6. Jason Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Yeah I agree with Dan, the quote reads ‘75% of the users who tried the new FB design, stuck with the new design.’ So it seems that most users who tried it, liked it enough to stick with the design… contrary to the title of the post.

    And I bet the 60% of users who haven’t tried it either don’t care about the design, didn’t want to try something ‘beta’, didn’t know how to do it, or didn’t want to be bothered… my wife for example, didn’t even notice the option until I pointed it out to her.

  7. natasha robinson Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    Thanks Dan. That’s how I read it as well

    natasha robinson’s last blog post..What SEMPO Knows, Meta Descriptions Aren’t Dead & SEO for Web 2.0? Sorta

  8. natasha robinson Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    Thanks Dan. That’s how I read it as well.

    natasha robinson’s last blog post..What SEMPO Knows, Meta Descriptions Aren’t Dead & SEO for Web 2.0? Sorta

  9. Michael Kraft Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    I’m with Dan on this one. The quote seems to be in direct opposition to the post title.

  10. Adam Singer Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    It makes sense:

    40% of ALL of Facebooks users TRIED the beta version. Then only 75% of that 40% remained with it.

    Anyway, the new version is FAR cleaner. Everyone is afraid of change, that is the problem. People become used to things, even if it isn’t good. Then they are frightened by something new.

    Welcome to Earth - this isn’t new, did you guys just land or something? ;)
    Adam Singer’s last blog post..How To Choose An Online Marketing Or PR Agency

  11. Joe Hall Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    I am willing to bet that Dan here is correct. I for one think that the new design is awesome! And I would be incredibly surprised to find out that 75% didn’t like it. The biggest reason that I liked the new design was because it cleaned up a vast majority of the crap and allows for users to more easily make sense of the platform.

    Joe Hall’s last blog post..Bloggers deserve real tips not stolen goods!

  12. Andy Beal Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    OK, OK, you guys are right and I suck! :-)

    I clearly mis-read it.

  13. Adam Singer Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    hey andy that’s what i get for backing you up? ;) hehe

    Adam Singer’s last blog post..How To Choose An Online Marketing Or PR Agency

  14. Andy Beal Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    @Adam - don’t feel bad. Only 40% tested the new version, right? A quarter of those switched back - which equals 10% of the total. Another 60% didn’t even want to try the new version - so that makes 70% of Facebook users not interested.

    Let’s hope I got that math right. ;-)

  15. Adam Singer Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    Alot of math for one day…back to writing !

    Adam Singer’s last blog post..How To Choose An Online Marketing Or PR Agency

  16. PS3 Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    I guess if they don’t like it they can always go to Bebo and have a random user name enforced upon them :)

  17. Andy Beal Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    @PS3 - LMAO!

  18. Tiffany Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    People hate learning to adapt with new things. Seems facebook is not afraid loosing them.

  19. Utah SEO Pro Says:

    September 11th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    Everyone hated Propeller’s new design too. But they still keep it.

    Utah SEO Pro’s last blog post..Building an SEO Friendly Site - SES San Jose 2008 Presentation

  20. Linda Bustos Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 12:18 am

    It’s nice they give a transition period before the full roll-out. I flipflopped back and forth but now am getting used to the new design although I don’t think it’s more usable (I hardly notice the Inbox # whereas the old design was nice and conspicuous), and it does show 2x the ads…

    It is growing on me, though. I felt in control that I could switch back and forth but I feel it will be an unwelcomed shock to those who haven’t switched yet and who don’t follow all the juicy social media news.

    Linda Bustos’s last blog post..Webinar Recap: I Know I Should Be Testing, But…

  21. Goran Web Design Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 6:32 am

    Well last time I checked, facebook had too many users and needed to cut down, so this is one way of getting rid of some people, force something on them and if they don’t like it then they can hit the freeway. LMAO! :-D

  22. Nicole Price Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 11:23 am

    I think that Facebook will lose users.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..Roller Skating

  23. MGA Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am

    I definitely want to stay with previous design!

  24. YajR Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    This new design totally blows. I was pissed when I found out today that I couldn’t hit the back to old design button.

    A 70% not interested says ‘NO’ to me. The new design isn’t even good looking or organized looking to me. I just see more ads now.

  25. Adam Singer Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Seriously the new design is FAR better, you people complaining need to give it a chance.

    Adam Singer’s last blog post..How To Choose An Online Marketing Or PR Agency

  26. Hunter Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

    I love the new version of facebook. It is a lot better. Its more spacious and not as packed together. People say that they loved having peoples profiles on one page, but to me, they got way too long. I hated it. Now we get easy tabs to manager everything. Way to go Facebook!

    Hunter’s last blog post..Trouble on HunterMcGrew.com

  27. San Nayak Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Thanks Dan for pointing it out. Anyway, I liked the new one.

    San Nayak’s last blog post..BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Bartlett, Chicago, IL, 60103

  28. Melbourne Magicians Says:

    September 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    I like the new one. But people fear change.

    BTW - I like your spam protection. It makes me do math.

    Melbourne Magicians’s last blog post..Radio 666

  29. Kimani Says:

    September 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    I hope Facebook dies a quick, painful death for forcing this crap on us. Obviously, if you tell users that soon the new version will be the only version, they have no choice but to keep it don’t they? Facebook needs to accept they were wrong and just bring the old one back.

  30. Gerel Says:

    September 14th, 2008 at 10:36 am

    Naturally people prefer vertical display of lists, and having things horizontally is a disaster in the spelling. I personally hate it, big time!

    Gerel’s last blog post..Social Media as Cocktails

  31. GugaAlves Says:

    September 14th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

    I prefer the old one too !

  32. Social Factories | brants Says:

    September 29th, 2008 at 12:48 am

    [...] protests and just accept his virtual reality. Inspite of short term solutions offered, well meaning advice, and groups consisting of millions of supporters, Facebook was unruffled, plodded on with [...]

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