On Thursday, Facebook finally came out with the announcement about the new News Feed. CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed that this update will help the users see and feel things that they really care about. The new news feed will be like a personalized newspaper that allows users to receive top stories from global and local pages as well as relevant updates from family and friends added in their friend list.
The New Design Focuses On:
- Rich visually engaging stories.
- Facebook users will have choice of different feeds along with improved ability to view information on any topic that the user wants.
- Perfect consistency between the desktop, tablet and the mobile platform such that same experience is shared across different mediums.
The News Feed was first launched in 2006. Since then it has become a central place where users come and view information about their friends. Zuckerberg says that the goal of Facebook is to become the best social newspaper possible. This new intriguing design will change user experience pertaining to each and every element on Facebook, including the way advertisements are seen.
The new News Feed design has already been rolled out and in few weeks time the update will also be visible on mobile apps for users all around the world.
Choice of Feeds:
Its human nature to be interested in what our friends and family members are upto, where they are going, what they are eating, what they are listening to and so on. With the resigned News Feed the users can take full advantage of a switcher at the top of the page or by simply pulling down the window in the Facebook mobile app to glance at “Other feeds”.
Users will have an option to view updates from “All Friends” in chronological order. Plus, there is an interesting “Music” feed that allows a Facebook user to keep a check on concerts happening in close proximity as well newly released albums. Another interesting update is a “Photo” feed, that will allow users to view vibrant and interesting images from events happening around the world. Also. There is a “Following” feed that allows users to see all the updates from the Facebook Pages of brands and people that they Like.
How does this update affect Facebook Pages
The new redesign will only affect how the News Feed appears. Every small change on Facebook does affect Brands and people having Facebook pages by varying degrees. Facebook has provided with the following three guidelines for people or brands with Facebook pages.
- Think about your visuals: We’ve seen that more visual stories in News Feed – from both people and Pages – increase user engagement. Now businesses have an even more visually rich way to showcase content and get people engaged.
- Get discovered with “Following”: Thanks to a new “Following” feed on the right-hand side of the home page, people will be able to discover more content from the Pages they like and the people they follow. Stories on “Following” are shown in chronological order.
- Make sure your cover photo tells your story: For both organic and paid Page Like stories, the photo that we’ll now display is the Page’s cover photo. This change is designed to provide more context about the Page. All the more reason to make sure your cover photo is eye-catching and visually representative of your Page.
The above guidelines are very important for businesses that have Pages on Facebook. Updated their content keeping the new design in mind will help them capture the user interest at the present moment.
Updated Navigation System:
In addition to the above updates, Facebook has also unveiled a new navigation design across all the platforms. The new navigation is more responsive and can be accessed without the need to go back to the homepage.
Users privacy remains intact, its just a design change:
When the News Feed was first rolled out by Facebook, it led to many privacy related debates. Lot of users quit using Facebook as they considered the News Feed to be a privacy intrusion. Facebook has made it very clear that this redesign update will not affect the existing privacy settings of the users. According to Facebook it is only a design change, and does not have any correlation with the functionality of privacy settings.