A few days back I stood up for Facebook for a few reasons. First, I don’t think the design is as bad as people say it is. Second, people often don’t offer many recommendations for improvement beyond “dude, the UI sucks.” The beauty of the internet is everyone gets a voice. The downfall of the internet is everyone gets a voice. It makes it extremely hard for PMs to sift through the mess(as evident from the comments on MG’s TechCrunch post) and understand what is noise and what is actionable feedback that should be addressed. OK, that is now out of the way and I can get back to the task at hand, Virb.

If Facebook had Virb’s UI, Productivity in the US would plummet
Seriously, Virb’s UI is hot. Its clean and easy to use. It really isn’t fair to compare it to Facebook, since it’s purpose isn’t to keep in touch with friends. Instead Virb lets you explore photos, text, quotes, bookmarks, videos, and more. One of my favorite features on Virb is the explore button. I spend so much time searching for the things I want, it’s nice to just browse through images, videos, and quotes from interesting people that I don’t know. It’s like channel surfing on TV, but better. There are definitely some talented artists and photographers on Virb.

Content is king, so Virb’s got some work to do
Despite the wonderful UI, content is king, and on Social Networks the content that keeps users coming back is more users. Maybe Virb’s goal is really to be a place for really creative people to… well, be creative. I’ve got no problem with that, since I’m a big fan of concrete mission statements or mantras. I think it tends to lead to products that answer a need and successfully monetize.

This post really just scratched the surface. My next post on Virb will go over a few of the UI/UX features that I think make it a killer web application. Stay tuned.

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As a product guy, I do feel the need to stand up for Facebook. They take a lot of bashing from the media for their UI. I myself am guilty for bashing Facebook’s UI/UX, but they have a long laundry list of requirements. Not to mention their user profiles are quite diverse. They have user feedback pulling them in a million different directions, and then there is the other 98% of users that don’t explicitly say anything. Their actions must be measured, translated, and digested for their product team to act. So next time you think about saying “Man Facebook’s UI sucks,” think again. A 200 million user base didn’t show up due to lack of options.

Despite Facebook’s dominance there is room for innovation in the social network space. Facebook is winning the game, but it has not won it. They aren’t happily sitting back with their lead in the space. Their product serves a need, but it is far from perfect and they are well aware of it. Social networking is still in its infancy stages despite its adoption rate.

In regards to competition, I do like Virb’s look and feel, but it does leave me wanting feature wise. I’ll save my thoughts on Virb for another post.

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