007: Change Rage

Why are websites keeping layout or usability changes nobody likes?

About a few weeks ago while I was on Facebook, I found out I had this:

Oh dear sweet mother of Thomas Edison just no.

This is Facebook's photo-viewing lightbox, implemented sometime last year. I abhorred it. I used Fancybox on my own website for this type of thing, but I had pages linked to non-lightbox versions of my gallery works for those who wanted to view it in a bigger size.  Unfortunately, there's no way I could turn this off and never see it again. I've looked on Gizmodo, Engadget, Google, and there appears to be no way of doing it simply on Facebook without some kind of browser extension or one or two clicks or keyboard commands. Call me lazy, but even that seems like too much effort for something I simply would like to turn off.

Is this the only time I've had this box? No, when it was first implemented I hatedx3 it and I ranted about it so much, it would make a Livejournal user proud. Eventually, it went away, and I could only imagine Facebook finally answered the outcry of majority dislike against it. Nope, Facebook just decided to spare me for awhile before it returned.

First off, I'm biased. I don't like change. If it completely changes how something I have become used to is done, I'm very against it. There were some changes I liked that websites have done over the years. I like how Youtube can let you change the titles of your videos now so you don't have to reupload them just for a new title. I like how Facebook decided to move names above statuses or posts instead of right next to them. I like how Google lets you turn off the automatic search if you don't want it to automatically search something random for you. I don't like how Facebook doesn't let you turn off this blasted lightbox, I don't like Youtube's latest front page layout, and for the love of all that is good, what did Gawker just do to their websites?!

Haters to the left - which is Gizmodo.com's old design before the new design, on the right.
Screenshot taken 02/18/11, click for full view.

WHAT. HAPPENED? If anything, this only proves to me I'm incredibly out of the loop since this looks like it's set on mobile compatibility and I lack a smartphone of any sort. But from first impressions, I see attempts at a sleek white style a la Apple, a professional tabloid-type feel like online newspapers and any free Wordpress/Blogspot preset, and Serif fonts.

Freaking. Serif. Fonts. As the main typeface on blogs about the latest in the geek industry.

There is a reason Apple doesn't use Apple Garamond anymore and that's because Myriad exists. Anybody who has been paying attention to the latest in the geek industry knows that clearly, Sans Serif is the way to go. As somebody said about this as well, these new Gawker layouts lose all personal touch - now I'm immediately looking to the left instead of the front page I may or may not be interested in, instead of just scrolling through the front page and easily picking out what I want to read based on what pops out.

I find that accepting major changes like this, or in general just dealing with it as life moves on, is either incredibly easy or incredibly hard during the transition. Transitions are difficult when it's a huge jump from the sun to the moon. Heck, sometimes you might not even be able to accept the change at all and just ragequit, something I'm probably not going to do until Facebook gets triumphed over. This applies to real life as well as anything beyond web structure and design. But, here's the thing - why should we have to accept that change?

My last blog post, Corporate Logo Rage, discussed how that new Gap logo was so terrible that they actually reverted back to the old one. Some people wondered why Gap would cave in, claiming it showed weakness in the strong business hold it was supposed to have as a corporation. Others said it was good that Gap reverted back, claiming it showed that the customers and public were held in the utmost importance to guarantee full satisfaction.

The majority didn't accept Gap's bold Helvetica gradient-square-in-the-corner change, because the majority didn't like it. And God help me, if that can happen, then why can't I at least turn off the Facebook lightbox if the majority didn't* like it either?

*By now I suspect people have gone through the getting-used-to-it phase if they've had it for awhile. I've only recently gotten this so my outcry is a little late. That isn't the main point though.