Tuesday 12 March 2013

HOW FACEBOOK DESIGNED THE NEWSFEED - WITH A PANDA AS INSPIRATION

HOW FACEBOOK DESIGNED THE NEWSFEED - WITH A PANDA AS INSPIRATION

Robyn Morris, the designer of the new Newsfeed, told MailOnline he has been working on the project for a year.

'When we began we weren't sure what we would be doing,' he admitted.

'One early study used cut up paper to get people to rearrange their newsfeed.

'We found people really want to be able to see just posts from friends, and see photos

'We decided if we're going to be showing photos, we need to have a design that gave them centre stage.'

The new look was inspired by the firm's mobile apps.

'It starts to feel like mobile and desktop are made of the same material, we don't want people to have to learn things twice.'

Morris also said the firm still treated Facebook as a third party app -even thought the firm owns the retro picture service.

'Instagram remain an independent app - even thought they are in house

It's been really interesting to have them here, to make sure third party apps look good - they are guinea pigs in many ways.

The team behind the redesign was tiny - with Morris and one other designer working with engineers.

'The design team was small - me and one other designer, in fact.

'It's been a big undertaking, it's a high profile page - and we've had a lot of help.

'We've been bunkered down in a room working closely with engineers - 15 of us in a conference room turned war room.'

'Panda was the mascot - black and white like a newspaper, so somewhere along the way we adopted it - we all call each other pandas.'

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