Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Laura Andina

Dear Facebook,

Since the phone was invented, phone numbers have been stored in lists. People would have huge books at home where handwritten phone numbers were kept and consulted before calling.

Let’s fast forward a couple of hundred years, smartphones are in and still, contacts, friends, followers are stored in all social networks, operating systems and calling apps like this:

My phone, Facebook and Skype. Is easy as A, B, C, 1, 2, 3…

Alphabetical sorting has been proven the most effective way to order this type of information, especially if paired with a gigantic search field on top that will allow me to search for and rapidly reach the person that I am really looking for. So basically, the friends section becomes a place where people tap or click on a search field, look for something and leave. That’s it.

Let’s search for stuff!

So why doesn’t anyone do more with this list?

Well, Google tried to do things differently, and in 2011 with Google + coined the term “circles”. As seen in this video, this feature brought to the table a very important matter: contacts in the digital world are, besides a name field and a profile photo, human beings.

The concept was good, but it didn’t work, I guess, because Google asked me to do all the work. I had to build those circles tagging people as “Friends”, “Work colleagues” or “Whatever”. I don’t want to sort people, I don’t have the time. And it’s also very challenging to decide this: “Are we friends or acquaintances?”… So, most of my Google + contacts wound up on the “whatever” list.

Also, and maybe more importantly: people’s connections do change: today I could put someone in the “Friends” circle and maybe tomorrow that same person would be in “I-don’t-remember-you-cos-I-moved-to-another-city-&-we-no-longer-work-together”.

People change. Relationships evolve organically so it’s hard to put a persistent tag on them. That’s why it’s hard to get this friends thing in the virtual world right.

But, Facebook… Remember: people are important! The existence of those friends in your products is the reason why we choose Facebook over Ello. “Everybody is on Facebook” — that’s why we stay there. The same applies to WhatsApp. We use that app because of its features but even more so, because even my 73-year-old mother is there. People are they key to everything: from deciding to go to a party to selecting one app over another.

So, again, if people are so important, how come this section has evolved so little in 100 years? Well, the problem is that you, Facebook, have other objectives. All your resources seem to be placed on proving that the Hypodermic Needle Theory does work, after all, and McLuhan was wrong. It seems that your shtick is to make the world see that you can and have successfully sent specific and ultra-targeted messages without any interference. Trump’s campaign has been an excellent example of this.

So, your focus, Facebook, apparently, is that since all the friends are already at the party, you want us to talk, so you can pick up on our interests and better target ads. You are there, whispering in our ear: “Please like stuff so we can polish our algorithm and get companies to sell you more specific stuff you’re definitely going to buy.”

In this context, it’s clear that making my friend list (hidden after 3 long clicks) more useful isn’t something you can or want to invest on. I get it. There’s nothing for you to gain from on that list. How little you have invested in this section proves I am right. See how few options I currently have to filter people:

I do have a few friends that live in Paris, shamefully if I write the city, I can’t get to them. Because, of course, people are stored only by their names, alphabetically.

I understand you, Facebook. You’re busy doing other things. But you know what? There are ways in which you can have this list be useful and still get some revenue out of it.

For example, currently only on mobile, you had this banner saying “you are in this city, the weather is great”. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could tell me if I had any friends in that city too? Maybe, once you put people first, I see their faces… You could have me plan things with them… And you get your revenue! Win — win, right?

I travel to Madrid and I get all the info of the friends I have there. People lure me to other things, Facebook!

That “bringing people back in” would be specially on brand since your claim is “Connect with friends and the world around you on Facebook.” — friends and world. Connection. A list does not provide that, neither does an algorithm that allows me to see on my feed just some of my friends, not the 870 that I currently have.

So, not only could you do that by filtering my friends by my own current location, you could let me browse them by their location, so I get a clear picture of how many friends I have been making around the world.

So if I plan a trip to England, before buying tickets (wink wink) I could click/tap on an awesome map to see/remember all the connections I made while I studied in London. People I like but with whom I lost contact, and with whom I could hang out if I had the chance. I can’t rely solely on my memory… Remember I have 870 friends… and you do not show me activity on all of them!

This is just very basic stuff you could do, dear Facebook. I am not asking for a lot, I don’t think. Sorting a list better is easy stuff. There is more you could do, but hey, I don’t want to overwhelm you. After all, this is my first letter… It has been a pleasure sharing this with you.

Bests and nothing less,

your friend since 2007,

L

Facebook: fix my friends! was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Facebook: fix my friends!

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