They haven't added any fundamental innovations that Facebook hasn't already implemented.

This is an example of the worst kind of design, where the designer has gone through a self-absorbed process of moving around and resizing elements that Facebook created through years of experience with real users.

Can absolutely confirm that. For me it looks like something that is designed by Microsoft (mainly because of the fonts).

There are too wide spaces between text and metadata, too lwo contrasts between light shades of grey and a disrupted context for some elements (see My Profile and Search).

#fail

To add to your point, these guys have no idea what the average computer user is running. Hint: it's not a pro-grade 30" widescreen LCD.

Where I work we run a website targeted to everyone - mom, pop, grandpa, college dude, etc. Suffice to say, our minimum resolution and colour depth requirements are really low. Experience has proven this to be far wiser than Web 2.0-ing everything and assuming people have screen real estate.

The design here won't work on low resolution displays. The news feed would - but that's only because their design wastes a truckload of space down the middle. Their photo viewer, and calendar will break on any low-resolution screen.

Can it be fixed? Sure, but I have a feeling the more you "fix" their design, the closer you're going to get to where Facebook already is today ;)

Not only that, it's completely done away with the branding that Facebook has built over time. That goes beyond just the logo. There is hardly any blue in this design, which is their signature design element. The design they have itself is a brand. Even as they've changed designs over time, it's maintained a similar design language. Completely eschewing that for the sake of "newness" is borderline retarded.

Also, it's bland and ugly as fucking sin.

Too light. Not enough contrast/information density. I like some of the things, like the photo display, but this makes Facebook look generic and cluttered and "trendy". The best thing about Facebook's design is it so thoroughly denies trends.

EDIT: Also, the lack of pointless gradients.

It's just that one gradient in the background.

I agree with your overall sentiment, though. You know, often times, I find sites designed like that really uncomfortable to use. I can't explain why. Everything is too nice, and too slick. Maybe it's like taking a friend's ferrari out for a spin and being afraid to get it scratched - not sure.

The way one of my teachers described it a few years ago is that we get uncomfortable around beauty without purpose. Beauty feels good, but only when there's a logic to its being there. Often it's better to be plain than to attempt overt beauty, because it feels more honest. And that's how Facebook feels to me. It's an honest design.

I agree. A lot of designers excel at making things that are nice to look at but not especially nice to use. I've always thought of this as a sort of "heaviness" -- the design has so much inertia that you're reluctant to manipulate it. This Facebook makeover, with its non-standard fonts and metallic sheen, feels really heavy.

That's usually a matter of a broken design process. Design really needs to start with figuring out what the content is and design decisions need to be based on content and function requirements.

Too many times, I see a designer use stock images and "lorem ipsum" text, which leads to a design that looks good, but once it's built it won't feel right.

The same goes for this Facebook redesign. The most important content of the feed pages (people's status updates) is de-emphasiced (light grey) and really small. Functional items are also grey and uppercase, which makes them hard to read. Etc, etc.

I still appreciate the effort and thought that goes into it. They should do a few rounds of feedback/iteration and this could be very cool.

I have an easier explanation: they're not closing the feedback loop. The problem here is that they've designed this thing in-place, without the benefit of having Facebook's reams of trends and existing user data - nor have they been able to test each of their assumptions in the real world.

Designing without a feedback loop will make very pretty products on paper that utterly fail in real life.

Wonder how different perspectives designers and hackers have...But it is not definitely a great design and it gonna look worse on a small screen...

I quite like what they are doing with http://lite.facebook.com

It's funny we all share a similar view on ycombinator.com (the 'facelift' is nothing special), yet everyone on the source page is orgasming over it.

== critical thinkers vs. autofellating designers

To be honest, claiming that the HN community are critical thinkers and designers are autofellating... is pretty autofellating.

I would like a more rational, more realistic explanation of why we seem to universally hate it, while designers seem to love it.