Facebook redesign and the customer is not always right

March 27th, 2009

Listen to me on ABC Radio, The Curtis Sliwa show talking about Facebook’s changes. Stream or download (Time: 6:03).

The old maxim in sales, “The customer is always right” does not hold true in technology. Because we’re being trained how to use technology by the people who are creating it. And this holds true for user interface design.

Yet when someone is introduced to a new technology, like social networks and Facebook, that they never thought they needed before, as soon as they have it they now claim they’re an expert on how it should be developed.

This is exactly the dilemma that Facebook is dealing with. The overwhelming hatred of the new redesign is forcing the social network to take some action to appease its customers.

Most organizations would love to have the problem Facebook is having. To actually get customer feedback. Facebook get tons of it. Many businesses think, “If we only knew what our customers wanted, then we could give it to them.” Unlike most businesses, Facebook is a social network where the process of feedback is inherent in the product.

Facebook and all other businesses that deal with customer criticism have three options. They could:

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said himself that users can accept change if you roll out that change over time. In this case he didn’t listen to his own advice. Users couldn’t accept this change because it wasn’t rolled out over time. It just arrived.

The problem is when you have millions of users (200 million for Facebook by one estimate) can you afford to ignore them? What if only half a percent are complaining? That’s the estimate of people who responded to Facebook’s redesign.

Steve Jobs got away with developing the iPhone without an audience committee because Apple wasn’t previously in the mobile phone business. But look at Apple today. Many of the revisions in iPhone 3.0 are the result of customer demands.

My feeling is Facebook is going to have to play this like a really good magician. Make users believe they’re being listened to, then without their seeing, create something else. A magician tricks us, not giving us what we want, but in the end we’re delighted.

Here’s a list of Facebook’s planned changes, according to Chris Cox, Director of Product.

This news item is for the Spark Minute week of 3/30/09 which can be heard daily on Green 960 and 910 KNEW in San Francisco, CA.

  1. Your Facebook network is filled with people you don’t talk to
  2. Facebook-like ammended privacy policies are happening everywhere. You’re just not paying attention
  3. Cranky Geeks: Email is dead and what do users of Facebook know about Facebook
  4. Facebook privacy isssues – Interview on CBS-Channel 5 in San Francisco
  5. Facebook vs. Google-Encroaching on each other’s territory
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Filed under: Spark Minute, Tech debate, Web 2.0

  • I like how you have the magician metaphor. It's true and I think over time people will get used to the redesign. Then they will slightly change something seeming like they listened to their audience complaints when in reality it has no bearing on anything.
  • Grant
    If the customer didn't like facebook to begin with, where would it be. If customers didn't like what was in the iPhone where would it be? Now, with Facebook what you saw was people reacting to the shock of having all their familiar tools changed over night, which is the wrong way to go about it. So, Facebook was wrong. This is why Google makes very small, incremental changes. This approach also speeds up the dev process and helps to ensure quality.
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