Chat Notifications

Chatting is the most immediate point of contact for friends on Facebook, yet for millions of us, on the mobile experience it’s probably the most buried of all. At the moment, there is no notification component for chat messages; even when I go to the ‘Home’ screen where I can expect to find Friend Request & Message notifications there are still no Chat notifications. I have to actually open chat every time I want to check, in fact I should never really have to check, that’s the point, I should be notified.

YoZuck! Implement this.

Tagging Strangers in Comment Threads

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

I just launched Relevance Testing

I just launched Relevance Testing; a series of regular tests on the relevance of Facebook news feed content. I have illustrated relevance — or rather irrelevance — by blanking out content which was of little or no interest to me. Take a closer look now.

Facebook Messenger

This is a progressive concept and while I haven’t used it I’m excited to see Facebook porting aspects of the experience out from the core product.

I have a few ideas up my sleeve for how Facebook might develop some it’s other features into similarly novel — at least for Facebook — ways of interacting with friends.

Nice one guys!

Is this relevance?

Just moments ago Facebook announced a News Feed feature that will attempt to collate related stories from your friends in an effort to bring you the most relevant content. Great.

But there’s always a but, just seconds after viewing the example I spotted a major pitfall with this concept. What if I hate Harry Potter? Instead of having ‘only’ 3 updates spaced throughout the day, I now have endure those 3 updates — as they are posted — and one huge mashed-up update — once Facebook detects the trend — all about something I really couldn’t care about.

No doubt it will be interesting how this plays out.

Where have all my friends gone?

All of a sudden, there is no clear way for me to check which of my friends are online. I’m stuck with whoever Facebook decides to show me. I know I can search, but what help is that really?

I feel the new chat is trying to be clever while forgetting to be useful, and as a recent immigrant to Finland, I can only hope they fix this soon.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

Implemented.

So today I caught wind of Facebook’s latest iteration. An implementation that allows us to embed videos, photos and links within comments on posts. I’m not exactly sure what they are calling it but I love it, of course I do.

I posted this idea on YoZuck! a few months ago. Quite frankly I don’t care if they liberated my idea or if they had always planned to add it; what’s awesome is that first time in history humans have the potential to communicate, collaborated and contribute like this.

Stay awesome internet. Stay awesome.

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On a related note, during my interview with Facebook I was asked which feature I’d like to see implemented most from my blog. I picked this one, interesting to see how things play out.

A critique of the new Facebook chat

Lots of ideas here so I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

Chat names should link to profiles

Yesterday, along with video calling, Facebook revealed a new chat interface; which can be activated by visiting http://facebook.com/videocalling when logged in.

While there are some aspects of the new chat UI that I welcome, one glaringly obvious omission is the link back to users profiles from within chat windows. Usernames should link to the user pages; like they always have. Right now, clicking the users name minimizing the chat window. I’m not sure what the logic was behind the change but it needs to be reversed.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

The YoZuck! Story

I’m moving to Helsinki, Finland.

About 2 months ago I set up YoZuck, a blog to share ideas that I felt could improve the Facebook experience. Many of these ideas grew from a frustration and curiosity of the web. Within a few weeks the blog had gained some traction, people began to notice. Even the Zuck took notice, so I had been informed. This was brilliant, I was sharing ideas and people were responding; I felt like I might just have an impact. Pretty soon after Facebook interviewed me. I didn’t get the job, but it was exciting nonetheless.

Being featured on Techcrunch, CNET and a host of other sites pushed the message further than I had ever anticipated. It seemed every time I checked my mail I had a new message from some new start-up or CEO looking to improve the interface and experience of their product. It was a little overwhelming.

After plenty of interviews, phone calls and emails with various people and organizations I eventually accepted an offer from Blaast. I visited Helsinki last week to meet the team, check out the office and put pen to paper. I’m excited to announce that July 18th 2011 will be my first day at the new gig. I cannot wait. While there I had the pleasure of sitting in on a few discussions and I’m incredibly excited by what they are doing. Some of the (design) challenges Blaast face are staggering and will be instrumental in defining the future of mobile computing for millions if not billions of people. But more on that soon.

For now, I’m back home in Ireland to relax and prepare for the move.

News!

Lots of incredible things have happened over the last month.

Reply to comments

I sometimes feel a little lost scanning 20, 30 or 40 comments to see if someone has specifically replied to me or not. I think being able to reply to individual comments would help conversations flow more naturally. I can also see how this might be useful for fan pages or groups with thousands of members.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

Delete Messages

It’s already possible to delete messages, but it’s just plain awkward. If a function exists it should be clear and consistent across the entire website. Keep the checkboxes, allow users to delete multiple messages, but not including an expected interaction is like abusing user loyalty. They have spent years learning how to use the product, don’t destroy that, it’s all you’ve got, I promise you.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

Combined Search

I would love to see Facebook experiment with the search metaphor further; perhaps turn it into a social springboard rather than just a shortcut to friends, pages or people search. Maybe it could become more than a search bar, but an aggregation bar, indexing all your friends, their comments, posts, photos, videos, messages, events, check-ins, and how all of that interrelates into something truly useful.

For this concept, I’ve combined all the current varieties of search peppered throughout Facebook into one single search bar. Search has moved on a long way since it’s initial inception, however there is still huge potential in this area and I hope to spend more time thinking about it.

Yo Zuck! Implement this.

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Further Reading

Moments after I posted this idea about an article from the NYTimes pops up in my twitter stream about social search. — http://nyti.ms/lDIhZy

Mashable also does a round-up of some of the features of social search. — http://mashable.com/2011/05/16/facebook-bing-integration/

Exciting stuff, essepcially when you consider what Google are doing in the area.