Mark Zuckerberg and his crew have contributed a lot of wonderful technology which has changed the world in a wide variety of ways.But there is one influence, for better or worse, which many people may not be fully aware of:
Mark Zuckerberg and friends have already effectively defined how everyone else’s app in the app store should look, feel and behave.
The reason is simply this: “Every time you introduce a new design, you introduce risk. Corporations hate risk. Facebook is the de-facto, most-used application in every app store…so if you borrow parts of it, you reduce your risk.”
In short, “No One Ever Got Fired For Copying The Facebook App.”
Am I saying this is a good thing? No I am not. Do not mistake this for any opinion either way, what I am saying is: “This is happening now and it will continue to happen into the future because of how most corporations tend to behave when faced with risky design decisions.”
Now you might be wondering…what about Google, Microsoft and Apple? Aren’t they design leaders? Why aren’t people copying them?
The trouble is that Apple, Android and Microsoft designs aren’t meant to be transplanted to different platforms…which means user experience designers are fundamentally unable to use those design languages across many mediums.If there is one thing user experience designers want – it is a consistant cross-platform experience which is unique to their own brand and independent of any device.
Source: BusinessInsider
Chat Heads For Everyone!
Facebook is a sort of neutral 3rd party – their apps are everywhere, everyone uses their apps on a daily basis and everyone is familiar with how to use them already. So copying or *ahem* taking inspiration from them is perceived as a great way to ensure that your users will instantly be familiar with your app. I am not saying this is a good thing, I am saying this is what is happening.
Don’t believe me? Just wait 3 months and I guarantee you half the apps in the market will have little “Chat Head” bubbles.
Facebook Borrows Too
Before I start pointing out the common interaction elements that define Facebook, I wanted to make a note that Facebook does indeed sometimes take inspiration from others. One example is they make use of the famous “pull down to refresh” pattern which originated from Twitter. Another example is the Tumblr-esque moving of the user’s head-shot image out and to the left in the Facebook iPad app.However, once a feature is deemed natural enough to appear in Facebook, you better believe it is now an unspoken app design standard.
Am I saying that Facebook is the design leader? No, I am saying that Facebook is the design *default.*
Still Don’t Believe Me ?
Lets go down the list of Facebook App design elements and think about these next time you use any other app in the app store. Once you see them called out, you will see them everywhere.
Feature A: Hamburger-Basement Slide Out Menus on either side of the app
Feature B: Table views with a grey background, white content elements and spacing on all sides.
Feature B: In-place Popover Controllers
Feature D: Facebook’s Photo Viewer
Feature E: The Like Button (Do I even need to say that?)
Feature F: The Facebook “Sliding Toolbar” (the one at the top of the news feed that opens and closes based on your acceleration)
Feature G: Chat Heads (just wait)
Feature H: Big Background Profile Images Pattern (you will see this a lot in Restaurant search apps like Yelp)
Source:TechCrunch
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