According to Penman (1998), a document's functionality varies depending on the readers' habits, expectations and context of use. Penman was proven right when some Facebook users were left fuming with the new-look Facebook.
In September 2008, Facebook revamped their appearance which apparently did not go down too well with many of its users. Based on the news article, forums devoted to bashing Facebook's new appearance emerged and there have thousands of members registered. The new design allows users to use tabs to include new pictures, messages, feeds and mini-applications on their main profile page.
To illustrate, here's a comparison between the older Facebook design in 2007 and the new design in 2008:
Facebook in 2007
Facebook in 2008 after the makeover
Although many users have complained about the new-look switch, Facebook maintains that this new design makes pages look livelier, better organised and give users the control over application they want to install. Facebook adds that once the users start to adapt and become familiar with the new layout, they will find that the changes are useful.
Another similar case would be new layout of Microsoft Office Word 2007 which according to the author of the article is "user-unfriendly and an ill-conceived design." Familiar menu buttons like "File," "Edit" and "Insert" were replaced with tabs like "Home," "Insert," "Page Layout" and "Review." Many loyal users of Microsoft Office Word were left enraged and confused with the new layout and began posting on the Internet their opinions.
Schriver (2007) said that readers of a document should not have to go through list after list in order to get a sense of options. However, Facebook and Microsoft have done the complete opposite. The users were left having to guess where previous information and options have gone to. In short, the new design did not communicate well with the users and according to Evans & Thomas (2004), communication is essential to the objective of any client-based projects.
So as a conclusion, changing a particular design or layout can be very risky as users may find it unfamiliar and difficult. In my opinion, the designers of Facebook and Microsoft should allow users to "test-run" the programs extensively before releasing them to avoid having future disgruntled users. However, that being said I also do feel that despite the unfamiliarity and confusion felt in the initial stages, sooner or later we will find ourselves adapting to it.
References
Evans, P & Thomas, M 2004, Exploring the elements of design, Thomas/Delmar Learning, Clifton Park, New York.
Penman, R 1998, 'Document structures and readers' habits', Communication news, vol. 11,
no. 2, pp.10-11.
Schriver, KA 2007, Dynamics in document design, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, United States of America.
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