Jeffrey Zeldman's Blog, page 88
November 10, 2010
Managing Facebook Like. Or not.
I'M ON FACEBOOK. I want to see everything I supposedly "like" and prune the list of things I don't. There should be a page where I can do this—that's UX Design 101—but instead there's just a sidebar box on my profile page showing a rotating, random sampling of liked items. The box is fine as an outward-facing device: on my profile page, it gives visitors a teasing hint of some of the cool stuff a deep guy like me digs. But inward-facing-wise, as a tool for me to manage my likes, it's useless.
At the top of sidebar box, there's text stating that I currently have "372 likes." The text is a hyperlink. Here's what should happen when I click that link: I should be taken to a page listing my likes (or the first, say, 100 of my likes, with a pagination tool). Each liked item should link to its corresponding Facebook page in case I need to refresh my memory about it. (This is the one part Facebook actually gets right.) More importantly, each liked item should be preceded by a checkbox. I should be able to check off 50 items on the page that I no longer like, and press a button allowing me to delete them all at once.
A number of elegant variations will occur to even the least experienced interface designer at this point: Perhaps there's a drop-down allowing me to choose functions other than deletion; perhaps there's a link to "select all" or de-select all; and so on. Such variations could make Facebook's hypothetical best-practice "like management" page easier, faster, or more pleasant to use. But they are pretty much beside the point, as Facebook does not provide a like management page when I click that stupid link.
When I click that link, what I get instead of a useful, simple management page—the kind we've been building in hypertext for over 15 years—is a small, in-page pop-up window, with a scrolling sidebar … because, like the sidebar box, this window is also a tease instead of a tool.
Inside that scrolling box is every item I've liked. I have to scroll to see anything beyond the first handful of liked items. There are no checkboxes. There is no master switch to delete one or more items. There isn't even an in-place deletion button beside each listed item, like the primitive edit tool in the first iPhone 3G.
No, my friends. There's nothing.
If I want to delete a liked item, get this! I have to click the item's hyperlink, go to the individual item page, and then hunt around on that page in search of a tiny link that would let me "unlike" that item. If I manage to find that link and unlike that one item, there's no confirmation dialog, and I'm not returned to the floating box, because the item's like page doesn't know about the box.
All that JavaScript, and no connections. All those pages, and not even the most basic tools.
And nobody complains. Why? Because nobody really uses liked items. Indeed nobody really uses Facebook, except to post links and photos and comment on their friends' links and photos. Liked items are for advertisers, they're not for you. In Facebook's estimation, you don't need to remove a page you no longer like, because you are never going to visit it anyway.
Hey, they have the stats, they know what their users do and don't do.
Facebook is a charnel house of features that appeal to advertisers and businesses without actually being used, supported by tools that don't work, for people who don't care.
Now I, uh, like Facebook fine, for the same reasons you do (if you do), and I generally ignore its well-branded but otherwise abortive gestures toward key features that have made it famous without actually doing a damned thing—"like" being the people's Exhibit A. But as a designer, it bothers me, not only because badly designed things bother designers, but because badly designed things in a highly successful product spur a lust for imitation. I don't want our clients to think "like" works. I don't want them desiring similarly broken functionality on sites we design for them. I don't want them thinking users don't need tools that work, simply because millions of users don't complain about broken tools on Facebook. Tools like like and its sad little pop-up.
Me no like.
November 9, 2010
A message from P Diddy
Don't worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop." – J.Zeldman LTTP 12.14.10
twitter.com/#!/iamdiddy/status/1835882504003584
November 7, 2010
Testing the WordPress App
I am testing the WordPress iPhone app's ability to create and publish a post. After a recent update, the app can no longer access published posts, although it seems to fetch Pages and Comments just fine. I'm wondering if the problem with posts extends to their creation, or is limited to an inability to fetch old posts.
November 5, 2010
Wikipedia sucks on web design.
"WEB DESIGN" NEEDS HELP. Authoritative though it may be on countless other topics, when it comes to web design, Wikipedia sucks. In short, Wikipedia's entry on "Web Design" needs your help. You know what to do.
November 3, 2010
Gary Vaynerchuk on The Big Web Show Episode 26
GARY VAYNERCHUK is our guest on Episode #26 of The Big Web Show, taped live before an internet audience at 1:00 PM ET Thursday 4 November at live.5by5.tv. Gary is the creator of Wine Library TV, the author of the New York Times bestselling book Crush It!, and the co-founder with his brother AJ of VaynerMedia, a boutique agency that works with personal brands, consumer brands, and startups.
The Big Web Show ("Everything Web That Matters") is recorded live in front of an internet audience every Thursday at 1:00 PM ET on live.5by5.tv. Edited episodes can be watched afterwards, often within hours of recording, via iTunes (audio feed | video feed) and the web. Subscribe and enjoy!
November 2, 2010
Away From My Desk
I am in glorious California where it bends down to kiss Tijuana, about to begin Day II of An Event Apart San Diego, the fifth and final sold-out AEA conference event of 2010. If you are here with me, party on, Garth. If not, the links below will help you soak up some of the flavor. Next year, An Event Apart will host six spectacular conference events "for people who make websites." Register early and often.
A Feed Apart – official aggregator of An Event Apart
An Event Apart San Diego – Photo Pool on Flickr
Luke Wroblewski's notes on AEA San Diego
Happy Cog wins Best in Class
Happy Cog has won a "Best In Class" Interactive Media Award for the official Philadelphia tourism site, visitphilly.com in the travel/tourism category.
According to the IMA:
The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. In order to win this award level, [the] site had to successfully pass through our comprehensive judging process, achieving very high marks in each of our judging criteria – an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.
Details at happycog.com.
October 27, 2010
Weirdest Type Design Ever?
Movie poster captured by Heather Shaw. There are several variations, all equally baffling. I'm hoping there's a concept behind it—that it's bad design to make a point.
