Facebook Serves Up Mystery Meat

A Step Backwards - Facebook Changes Their Layout

Facebook is constantly trying out new ideas. This week they changed the way people can see who is on line to chat. I do not think this was an improvement.

They used to show "Friends Online" as an icon of the people, their name and status (see previous layout in bottom image to the right).

Now Facebook is only showing icons of the people. Their status is displayed as a small square in the lower right of the image.

Does anyone remember the UI term "Mystery Meat Navigation" http://bit.ly/mysteryMeat? This change kind or reminds me of that.

Who's profile uses the Eiffel Tower? Who's is the Teddy Bear?

To see who the person is, you need to remember what their profile image looks like, or mouse over the icon to see their names.

I understand that it is not difficult to mouse over the Teddy Bear image to see it is my friend Will.

FB has traded the ability to fit more information into a smaller space for the ability of their users to know at a glance who is on line.

Part of good user interface design means creating a design so that the user doesn't need to think. Another part of good design is making it as easy as possible for the users to find the information they want. 

To me this change by Facebook is a step in the wrong direction.