I wrote about the fuss on GDPR but Facebook’s response made it even worse. Their UI department essentially made fun of both the EU and the entire planet by forcing us to waste time in a most amusing (to them) way. They had two questions to ask us. It could have been done with two clicks. But no. Let’s see what they actually chose to do instead: (In Greek on purpose. I want you to focus on the whole image, not the text.)
It didn’t need a splash screen. Under the pretense of explaining to us what it is all about however they want you to click on the bottom right because then you might…
..just click on the bottom right again without thinking in the next screen and accept without looking at it. I would love to know what the percentage of people who fell for this were. I am guessing around 60-70%. Just click on it to get to your timeline and whatever you wanted to do. But some might have clicked on it and then thought “oh no, maybe I should read this stuff”. So the Facebook UI team pulls a second trick out of their hat.
Another splash screen. Supposedly explaining stuff, which nobody will read and they know it. No, the real reason this is here is to get you clicking on the bottom right again as you anxiously worry that you’re late to like your wife’s latest post.
And here again another sneaky bit of UI magic. Put the choice under the visible part of the screen. Who will bother scrolling down, eh?
But hey, don’t worry. You get nice extra screen telling you that your selection was saved. Yippee, we were all worried that maybe it wasn’t saved. So click, click, click that bottom right….click and all this will go away…
…or maybe not so quickly. Another pseudofriendly splash screen with another big blue bright button down there to click on. By now you are biting at the chomp, raring to get to your feed.
The UI masters however are not done. They are running experiments on you even as the planet castigates them for running experiments on you. Why is this option not a slider like the other one? Because they want you to click on what seems more “obvious”.
Sure, I want Facebook to recognize my face, whatever, get to that blue button and back to my feed!
Well done, your selection is saved. You are a hero. But we are not done with you. Click the button, click the button…
Accept these terms if you want to continue using Facebook. Oh, OK, right, that is like my girlfriend demanding I marry her before we ever have sex again. And she tells me after we get naked and started. That big blue button doesn’t say “next”, it now says “agree” but you are well taught by now to always click down there. And now, only now, you can see the final mistake of the Facebook UI team.
They should have put a middle finger instead of a thumbs up.
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