Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has upgraded its News Feed by enabling users to hide particular posts from certain people by clicking on the grey arrow at the corner of the post. With the new tool, users can opt out from seeing each and every post of certain people and can limit the number to a few or even stop following the person completely.
Much-needed change from Facebook (FB)
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has already put the changes in place in its mobile and desktop versions, and they will be integrated into the apps in the coming weeks. However, this change is comparatively minor when compared to the step taken by the company to completely scrap its News Feed sliders in 2009.
On deciding to hide posts, users will have to respond to a few questions about if they completely want to un-follow posts from friends and pages or just see less. Users can also track the people whose posts they follow and the ones who are in their un-follow list. Facebook, in a video, has clearly explained the recent changes.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) product manager Greg Marra told BuzzFeed News recently, “We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can better get at the qualitative aspects about what you love about your News Feed.” Marra added that they reached the conclusion after talking to people and surveying what users actually like, compared to what they see and also their interaction with the News Feed.
More focus on user experience
Marra said that the social networking site is making increasing efforts to get an insight into the great and not-so-great experiences of users and how the later ones can be swapped with great experiences. Marra said that the process is called “user experience research” and involves experts hired by the company being deployed with the responsibility of observing users to know how they interact with the product and ask questions about what they do and do not understand. The observations are sent back to development teams, and they do the changes accordingly until they find a sweet spot.
Marra said that the most important target for the company is to build what people find easy to use and understand, adding that the company wants to offer its users control to give them an experience they want.
