It has been calculated that people have spent more time looking at the Facebook homepage than at Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting. Rather significant when one considers that Facebook was created in 2004 and Mona Lisa painted in 1503 or 1504.
This was recently revealed by Blake Gopnik, a Washington Post art critic, who prompted a discussion on the bland design of Facebook. Why, if people spend so much time looking at Facebook, is its aesthetic appeal so low? And why does it not seem to matter to the millions who frequent the site?
The Washington Post then tasked Bruce Mau with giving Facecbook a facelift, while also suggesting ways to improve the functionality of the site. The result is a more visually appealing interface with various ways to augment the way the site is used.
Mau and his team suggested more images, less status updates and ways of making “real” contact with friends by incorporating voice, sms and video chat functionalities.
