Here is what happened. I was having another frustrating session (1 hour or so) with Facebook ADs. I tried furiously to add a bunch of Ads to an AD campaign and each time I did it would activate dozens of Ads that should have remained as paused. I kept pausing that bunch of Ads and they did puase. And then sprung again to live. And sometimes once I refresh the screen, they would seem as paused. And then they would show as active again. It was really frustrating. Money was at risk and I was planning on having SOME sleep after a week of no-sleep-at-all. Just another "tear your hair" moment (I don't have too much hair at all). Ahh, one more thing I forgot to mention – I have been a computer Guru for many many years (and a pretty damn good SEO expert 
) Go figure how non-techie people live with this (hint: they don't!). Then after grabbing a 30 minute sleep (my Son "Gently" waked me and asked I drive him to the Gym), I was preparing to go the weekly date with my wife and friends. Nothing special. Just the movie "The Social Network". My wife and friends thought the movie was a bit tiresome. Well, I had a great time. Mark a brilliant , writing software, mentioning "dirty" words such as encryption and ssh. Then the success. I did not want it to end. And then we went to sleep. In the back of my mind, I was thinking: "How can I create such a success. What can I learn from Mark….what is Facebook missing that I can create?" Then as I woke up with the answer (as I always do). Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is too complicated for many people. Facebook is the born child of a computer who insisted on having Facebook be Social rather than profitable. It was Designed for students. Then came the pathces to make it suite everyone, including you. You could be saying – "man, there are 500,000,000 and more people on Facebook. It is a success." Well, did Facebook ask people how they feel about their platform? Wheneever Facebook releases a new feature, there are hundreds and thousands of people pressing the like button for it. There are also many "unliking" comments. However, even if 50,000 people respond there are still 499950000 that did not have a say. Here is why all this is a real problem for Facebook: 1. No matter what you do, you cannot easily change the nature of an platform such as Facebook to become simpler. Certainly not while adding more and more features and continously moving things around. 2. There are too many people who do not use Facebook fully, even though they are inside Facebook. 3. Someday someone will wake up and create "Facebook Simple" or even use Facebook API to use all Facebook's data on top of a simpler platform. 4. Saying "well, I'll just relay on computer savvy people" will cost you in leaving the other part of the market for others. 5. There is a phenomena where people through away their sophisticated "smart" phones and pick up "dumb" phone that can simply let them make a call. This demand for "Simpler" Facebook will arise, and someone will respond to it, grabbing their share of followers and capital. So what should Mark Zuckerberg do? Here are few ideas: 1. Create that Simpler Facebook platform. From the grounds up. Get the right people show him what they need to get it simple 2. Create a new "Simple" mode within the current Facebook platform where the Facebook menu does not show too much. Only the simple basic stuff. 3. Add a "Expand my knowledge" menu that allows you to browse a menu of options such as "I want to add videos" "I want to find groups" and then let them go through the process. 4. Each feature should have a "how to" video showing how to set up a feature and then how to use it. Let people ask questions. 5. Create a "mentor" role, where people who have issues can mark some of their friends as "mentors". Those mentors will have permissions to change the options for the less-savvy user so he gets what he needs. 6. Each Facebook feature should have a "?" sign, once you click on it you can read help or ask a question. Savvy Facebook users can become moderators and answer questions on behalf of Facebook team. I think that's enough for now What do you think about Facebook and how can it become more usable?
Leave A Reply (2 comments So Far)
Dominic
553 days ago
If only those who should read this could actually see this.
Mary
552 days ago
In my opinion the brilliance of Facebook is that it has so many levels and so many different aspects and layers. The platform on it’s own works very well.
The problem however, is that once FB started to become popular everyone jumped on to the boat without knowing where their cruise was going.
What was once created for college students has now become a magnet for those who want to farm or play a mobster by just clicking their mouse. Or those who want to just market and sell in every update that they have.
As you state FB is now just a mixture of too many different options, choices and levels of computer skills.
The variety is nice but it can be overwhelming for someone who is just entering the arena of FB, so they see one option (for example one of the game applications) and stick with it, never venturing any further.
I would like to see an information section available that can simply and easily show a newcomer what is available inside FB. Almost like a checklist of options.
If the new user sees an item that might interest them, they would just click on it and there would be short videos available ( in addition to a text document since many are still on dial up and can’t view videos properly) to give an over view.
As the user gets accustomed to the one section, they could refer back to the checklist and see where else they might want to go.
There could also be a short video as someone is creating their account which will walk them through the sign up process along with a 5,000 foot view of the new world that is now available to them.
I think that your take is right on about FB. It needs to be simpler for the people who now use it – they are no longer college students who grew up on computers but people who have just purchased their first computer -know nothing about the internet or computers but have heard that they need to be on FB.
As usual you are spot on and have made some excellent suggestion on how to make FB more user friendly for the average Joe on the street.