New data has come to light that pins the success of Facebook’s new visual overhaul with a dismal 20% approval rating. According to Mark Zuckerberg, “Around 20% of our users have now migrated to the new platform and it has been received well after people get used to it.” ¹

As with other novel features on Facebook the redesign has clearly been met with massive opposition. Now the real question is, what should Facebook do? That’s easy, think of the user.

Changing the layout of Facebook’s profile is akin to going through a botched nose job and looking at yourself in the mirror the next day. It’s familiar, yet distant, a bit inflamed, and things aren’t where you remember them being. Users are uncomfortable with this radical departure from their beloved Facebook pages. What was once a quick and easy way to stay in touch with your college cohorts is now a multi-layered social networking behemoth. The redesign manages to alienate Facebook’s core group of users by moving critical contact information to ancillary tabs, and making the overall user experience much more complex.

At the same time, the introduction of NewsFeed to the profile page offers a massive improvement in the readability of the former banal wall feature. By increasing the prominence and functionality of the wall, Facebook has a created a functional engagement point for users. It’s now much easier to carry out complete discussions over the wall in a format that is far more meaningful than before. This one point may not make up for the other design gaffes, but it does show that Facebook is thinking in the right direction. It’s attempting to move the entire platform into a communications portal, instead of merely a treasure-trove of marketing data.

Now we all wait with eager anticipation for the next big scandal from the folks in Palo Alto, which better be juicy enough for Gawker to cover, or else we’ll be forced to do it for them.

¹ Source

After making the trek out to Seattle last year for Typecon 2007, I figured I couldn’t miss this year’s festivities in good old upstate New York, so I decided to attend Typecon 2008 in Buffalo. I spent three days listening to renowned speakers discuss issues related to every conceivable aspect of typography. I was excited to briefly meet Armin Vit who runs Brand New, by far my most favoritest blog in the whole wide world. I was even more pleased later in the conference to later see him and Erik Spiekermann sitting next to each other, tapping away at their laptops.

It was very enlightening and very inspiring, same as last year. I was blown away by the sheer beauty of Doyald Young’s work from his new book Dangerous Curves. Big ornate loopy swashes: not my thing, but still amazing. Highlight of the conference however, was rushing to finish dinner before Spiekermann’s entertaining talk at the Albright-Knox Gallery (and sitting down just in time).

Bonus was that I finally got to spend some time with my friend Nicole, who I studied with in Germany. I saw her parent’s house, her mom babied me because I was sick and her dad and I talked baseball. Which is what it should be like every time you meet someone’s parents for the first time. Mmm, italian hospitality.

It was a good time, and you know what, I’ll probably make it three in a row with Atlanta next year.

The latest in a “must have” service, and very much like the internets themselves, I cannot believe I existed two days ago without this. Maybe we didn’t exist, maybe what we perceive as a lifetime was really some facade and misperception of reality controlled by advanced machines bent on human enslavement…. but I digress- that’s a post for another day.

Dropbox: Though in invite-only beta at the moment (yes, Carrot is pretty l33t these days), the service is fully functional and fully amazing. Your best bet is to watch the video on their homepage (if it is moved by the time you read this, here’s the direct link to the video file)… but I’ll just add a brief overview and some notes. The service is seemingly the end all answer to the problem of tracking versions of files, across different machines and operating systems. We have a handful of designers working on any given project, and while we do our best to strategically and intuitively name/date design files, it’s never a sure thing. One project may be on 5 different machines, and figuring out the most recent version during the post-launch cleanup is messy. Dropbox allows us to now sync every designer’s design folders together. If I am out of the office on a retreat into the wilderness and hardly internet accessible, no problem! Sean will have the last file I was working on because it was automatically synced, via dropbox, to our shared design folder… the instant I saved it at the end of the day.

There are of course a slew of features in addition to the blessed file sync. You can generate URLs for instant sharing of files (one of my favorite Jing features), choose to share or keep private any folder you are syncing… and you can even manage the files online, if you are away from your sync’d machines. There is likely more splendor than I have even realized yet, so do yourself a favor and take a closer look. First indications are that this will be the next big thing for organizations like ours, and we are certainly willing to pay for a subscription fee when it goes to full release

If you need a beta invite, shoot me an email.

Some of the folks in the office last week were playing around on Facebook on Flock browsers when we discovered that the site was using SSL. Our own Mike Germano broke the news on Twitter, and this was followed by a great write-up by Nick O’Niell on the AllFacebook blog. We all figured that Facebook was getting ready to launch a new payment platform.

The news was so big that once it was published on AllFacebook, TechCrunch featured the story on their blog. The interesting thing about it is that you can see (if you clicked the previous link) that the story was taken down only hours after it was posted.

Is there a conspiracy behind the new payment platform? We think so. We’re on to you Facebook …

With a little over a month till performance time, UBRSTAR is gaining some great exposure in print and in the Bloggersphere. Most recently, both UBRSTAR and Carrot Creative were mentioned on Art Things, Considered, one of the more well-regarded and relevant blogs pertaining to all things artistic. We could not be more excited about the potential this project has in bringing Social Media to the Live Stage and vice versa, and we are delighted to have worked so closely with the New Haven Theater Company to develop both the creative vision and online representation of UBRSTAR. Here is a small piece of what Lex Leifheit of Art Things, Considered had to say about UBRSTAR:

“Designed by Carrot Creative , the website includes video instructions on how to create and upload your own video “role,” and offers several scripts to choose from…another feature of UBRSTAR, the “sound-offs,” is brilliant. One of the joys of live theater is the chance to see how people around you respond to the play in front of them. In today’s on-demand culture, the opportunity to get a taste of what that post-show conversation might be like, through a sound-off video, is far more authentic than a review or e-group hyperbole.”

Remember to submit your videos to be an online actor ASAP! For any questions, contact audition@ubrstar.com.

Traditional advertising methods are dead. In their wake lies a battleground for social web supremacy. After attending the Social Media Business School conference today and hearing our very own Mike Germano challenge traditional marketing concepts head on, it became clear to me that the time is right to revolutionize the social web.

One topic that was repeated throughout the day was the idea of the “SuperUser.” The ideal SuperUser is densely connected to others within their community and has the unique ability to influence the purchasing and surfing habits of their connections. They have plump profiles bursting with valuable demographic and psychographic data. The SuperUser is key to developing targeted growth rates, and will ultimately lead to more scientific, old-guard friendly metrics that can be leveraged for more lucrative advertising campaigns. 

The SuperUser is also the ideal candidate to become a brand ambassador. By displaying and utilizing the logos, colors, and ideas from their favorite brands, The SuperUser reinforces commercial brand elements, while at the same time putting their own personal spin on it. This leads to an increased level of brand engagement which not only helps to increase an application’s lifespan, but extends a users perception of the brand into other advertising spaces. 

Quantitative social media is just one part of our interactive arsenal that aides us in our quest to become the most innovative web mercenaries on the planet. 

School is not out for summer. But, I can promise you there will be no pop quizzes on Wednesday, June 25, as I will be speaking at the Social Media Business School event in NYC. The event is located at the Chinatown Brasserie on 380 Lafayette St and will begin at 9 am (but get there early as I am sure registration will fill up fast). I will be speaking on the panel designated for Social Media Marketing, however the day will include panel discussions and presentations on Analytics, App Hosting Options, Media API’s, Brand Advertising, Performance Advertising and Social Media Business Modeling. Social Media Business School, hosted by SocialMedia Networks, is sure to bring about great networking opportunities and great insight into the Business of Social Media, and I encourage anyone out there in the field of Social Media, in the NYC area or simply interested in the ins-and-outs of the Social Media business world to attend this great event.

In just two weeks of its release, SometimesDaily is already gaining considerable coverage in the media and blogosphere. Check out the following links to read all about SometimesDaily and what people around the world are quickly acknowledging could be the next great series online! Remember to tune in every day to SometimesDaily! Everyone at Carrot Creative is very proud to have help build such an awesome site.