[IxDA Discuss] Changes to Facebook (Perceived Privacy)

[Nasir Barday]

We can't blame this fiasco entirely on lack of user testing.

The issue with the news feed was a mismatch between the types of information
presented (i.e. making some intrinsic info about the social network obvious)
and the original goals of users (keeping tabs on friends, sharing a bit of
what's happening in my life with my friends, not feeling violated). Facebook
could have nipped this in the bud with contextual inquiries and interviews--
probably easier said than done if they still shun HCI folks, as mentioned
earlier.

Facebook identified a problem that users had ("I want to keep tabs on my
friends"), but they didn't follow through with a clear picture of what info
people wanted their friends to see easily.

Of course, I'm saying all of this from an armchair. I can't say I truly
understand the challenges of the development process at a social network.
Would love to hear from anyone that works on social networking apps that has
had to work with these problems.


Peter wrote:

> So only the types of innovations where both ends require the new feature
> you
> run into trouble. But this was also true for other innovations, like file
> compression formats and even the old fax machine. How did those get
> tested?


I sometimes doubt that file compression and fax machines were ever tested
for the does-this-thing-turn-you-into-a-crazed-lunatic metric. But these are
also one-to-one technologies that would be easy to test with pairs of people
as opposed to a connected social network.

- Nasir