mind over matter

In September 2008, Facebook launched a fresh makeover of their interface design which eventually left 100 million users of the social networking website fuming. Despite changing into a much speedy, more streamlined and spam-resistant format, many users remained in a state of rebellion.

In fact, many technological innovations rely upon user interface design to elevate their technical complexity to a usable product. As Facebook engineer Mark Slee said that the website's team is confident they can win over their users. "We don't look at this through the lens of messing with something that works," Slee said. "We are focusing on innovating and making the product better."

However, technology alone may not win over user acceptance. The User Experience, or how the users experience the product, is the key to acceptance.

Similarly, Nielsen (2009) opined that usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. Usability is defined by five quality components:

• Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
• Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
• Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

The truth is, usability is a necessary condition for web survival. And a fresh design will be a worse design just because it is new and thus breaks user expectations. Nielsen (2009) also says that, the key is to play up familiarity and build on users' existing knowledge of how a system works.

In my opinion, we can also conclude that usability remains dominant in the sense that being a Facebook user myself, all I care about is getting into things I wan't to do and log out. In fact, no one really cares for the design or the new and fresh format despite their reason being making the product better.

When people are visiting websites or using applications, they don't spend their time analyzing or admiring the design. They focus their attention on the task and the content.

References

• Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming, viewed on 19 November 2009, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/facebook-makeover-leaves-some-devotees-fuming/story-e6frgamx-1111117453632
  
• Nielsen, J 2009, Fresh vs. Familiar, viewed on 19 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/familiar-design.html
• Nielsen, J 2009, Usability 101, viewed on 19 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html