I’m on Facebook every day and I hate to admit it but it’s very true. Working as a social media manager for a tech company here in LA provided me with lots of time exploring the ins and outs of this messy site. I understand the needs of a company trying to promote something and a user trying to ignore those promotions. I even understand when you’re just trying to stalk an ex-boyfriend from five years ago because life isn’t sad enough. As I have come to love and hate this site I stopped to realize there is just so much unneeded noise that should be cleared out.

The Profile Page

My profile page has so much detail that I never touch or want to fill out. Why do I need to showcase all this information right away? I put all of that info over by my name. Now you can hover over an info icon and learn a little bit more about me. I felt like the years toggle wasn’t easy to switch through. It just didn’t feel organic enough for me and I barely ever used it. So I redid the structure of the year timeline and made it more user-friendly. Photographs and my status updates should be the most important thing on my profile. Let’s make that larger! I understand if you change that structure then you lose the ads on the side — that’s why I included ads within the feed of your profile.

I love Medium’s experience when you start writing and thought it would look and feel great on the profile page. So I made it super simple and added a + toggle to add photos and life moments. On the chat section I wanted a button to easily remove it, so I added an arrow for you to swipe it off and on the screen. I also made the UI mostly white so my photos and shares would really pop! I’m noticing most UI is gravitating to this look — maybe it’s too trendy.

The Feed

Now let’s talk about the feed structure. I hate going through my page and filtering through all the unwanted noise just to find that one funny post I care most about. I changed the structure so now you can click back and forth between status updates, posted photos, videos, shares, etc.

I also cleaned up the groups, trending, and events sections on the side by making some ghost buttons.

I’ve read some articles about why the UX/UI is the way it is on Facebook and I think they understand their users more than most companies.

Jonas Downey talked about this in his Medium article “Why I love ugly, messy interfaces — and you do too.”

The answer is that these products do an incredible job of solving their users’ problems, and their complex interfaces are a key reason for their success.

We can see this in some different products like Craigslist or Photoshop. I completely agree that there is a place for messy interfaces, but I just wonder if they asked themselves about function. Are the users really experiencing this feature or is it a waste of space? Is there a simple and easier way to let our users experience our product so they come back often? These are some questions I hope most companies ask.

I just would love to see a fresh new look soon, but I understand that this messy design serves a purpose and it serves it well.