As a huge fan (and three-year member) of the social networking site Facebook, I try to keep in the loop when updates are being made. Back in March (2008), Facebook noted that they would be making updates to the Facebook Profile. They created a “Facebook Profiles Preview” page to allow users to subscribe to updates regarding these profile changes.

Every week, The Facebook Team provided updates to their most loyal fans, seeking their thoughts and feedback on the changes being made. Screen shots were uploaded followed by over 600 comments with “I love it” or “I hate it” responses of varying degrees. As adjustments were made, they provided commentary and updated screen shots.

When Facebook first decided to change the layout everything, my initial thought was “Why mess with a good thing?” but quickly remembered the advancements made with the news feed, applications, etc. I figured I’d give the new layout a chance, and I found that I don’t hate it. It will definitely take a day or two to get used to the changes:

Homepage Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The biggest difference is the layout and spacing of the different sections. In the old layout, content seems concise and put together. In the new layout, there’s a lot of white space on the page. I don’t know that I feel it’s necessarily cleaner…but it does take advantage of the amount of space on the page. Rather than having the secondary navigation (search and applications) on the left, everything is now on the right. Moving the search bar to the top right corner follows standard site design, so it’s not surprising to see this move. And the newest navigation change is moving from the ‘Profile’ button to a link using the user’s name.

Profile Before Screen shot | After Screen shot

The new profile design, in my opinion, is cleaner. You’re not forced to have all of your profile content on one page. It’s broken up to help you sort out the information you’re looking for. Rather than scrolling down the page to read someone’s wall – it’s the first tab you see. From there, you have the option of filtering what you see “All Posts”, “Posts by User”, or “Posts by Others.”

Next is the Info tab, which contains your basic, personal and information, education/work history, as well as groups/pages. Standard information, but not the most important to the users.

Photos are by far my favorite thing to look at/share on Facebook. Within the new layout, they’ve made it easier to access your friends’ photos, as well as your own, since they’re now located on their own tab too.

With the addition of applications, profile pages started getting messier and messier. Fear not, with the new profile layout – they’re on their own tab and no longer on the main profile view.

Overall, I’m pleased with the new look and feel of the site. The one thing that I haven’t seen Facebook promoting is that the changes are going to occur. For those users that aren’t part of the “Facebook Profile Preview” group – there was a bit of confusion when I mentioned the new layout. I think Facebook should look at past roll-outs and realize that making sudden changes that impact the site will cause uproar amongst users. They’ve noted the change will be in the coming weeks, but I think they should start preparing everyone for what those changes will be.