Blog Social Networking Sites

The four social networking sites I will be observing today are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Facebook’s main colors consist of an unsaturated navy blue, light greys, and off-whites. When you launch the website, the first thing you’ll be directed to is the Home page. On the left-hand side are easy shortcuts for the user to click on to immediately go to the part of Facebook they’ve most often used or most likely interested in. The first is always “News Feed,” as that’s where you’ll receive new and updated content from your peers or Liked pages you follow. Underneath that, (or at least for my Facebook page), are a bunch of Messenger games I play with my friends. Underneath is the Explore tab, where Facebook will take me to a random page of whichever category I click. For instance, if I click on “Groups” it will show me the groups I’ve managed and I’ve been a part of in Facebook. A new button they’ve added to the “toolbar” is “Create,” where you have the choice of creating your own Page, Ad, Group, Event, Marketplace listing, or Fundraiser in Facebook. I think they’ve added this feature because they realize more often than not, users tend to use Facebook as a platform for these options.

A thing I also like is the fact Facebook changes the size of the font when statuses appear. So you’re more likely to see status updates from your friends, or at least, your eyes are more likely to focus on them. I think the more words you have on your status, the smaller your text becomes.

When you make a post, you have a variety of options — be it a background choice, to add a List, Photo/Video, to tag friends, to add an emotion, make a poll, or answer a question — and you also have the choice of posting this on your News Food and/or Your Story (which I believe they took inspiration from Snapchat and Instagram’s own “Story” features). You can also customize as to who will see this content, you have the option of posting it Public, to Friends only, to Friends except.. (can omit some friends from seeing this post), to Specific friends, or only to yourself.

So far, a lot of customization and options, but this kind of format may get a bit congested for some users who prefer a simple look.

The next website I’ll look over is Twitter. What I like about Twitter is they have the option for dark mode — so although Twitter’s usual colors are sky blue and white (and maybe even off-whites), they also have the option for people to see their navy hue versions, where the homepage becomes easier for some people to look at. Getting on Twitter, the first thing you’ll see is everyone you follow’s tweets, and even your own tweets if you posted them very recently. On the left-hand side, you will also see some of your stats, like the number of Tweets you’ve made, how many people you follow and how many people follow you. They also show you the Trends (whatever hashtag or Twitter is being mentioned quite often) and who to follow based on your followers and who you’re following. 

The tool bar has Home, Moments, Notifications, and Messages. However, judging by a recent announcement, Moments will soon be removed from Twitter due to its low usage. When you click on Notifications, it is divided into two parts — “All” and “Mentions.” All give you notifications of who liked your tweet, who retweeted, who hasn’t posted in a while, who replied to your tweet, and so far. Mentions restrict it to only those who @‘d you or mentioned you in a tweet. In messages, much like the Facebook Messenger, is a place where you can privately message another Twitter user or even create a group chat.

Overall, I think Twitter is one of the most simplistic designs though a complaint often made about Twitter is the way they structure their replies on a Tweet and the user’s inability to edit their Tweets.

The third website I will be looking over is Instagram, which contains a very, very simple interface. The "toolbar" only showcases symbols instead of words but provides a very accurate depiction of what each symbol means. There is a heart symbol, which tells you who has liked your photo or who has started following you. There is a compass symbol, which enables you to explore or discover new Instagram users or posts. Finally, there's a person symbol which shows you your own Instagram profile. Clicking on the name "Instagram" will take you to the RSS feed or "home" page of the site.

In a post, you can use hashtags to categorize your photo and you can reply by clicking the "chat" symbol or double tap the post (or click the heart) to like the photo. At the right-hand side, there's also a little sidebar that allows you to view the people you follow's stories.

Although I don't use Instagram much, I really do like the user interface for the website and how simple it is. I think my personal disappointment with this site is when they decided to change their logo from the cute camera icon to this weird mush of slushie colors icon. I think the current Instagram icon is quite bland and isn't very "out there" in terms of design. I preferred their original icon because although it had a lot of hues in it, it was fiercely connected with them (and I suppose they updated it to the current one to give a more simplistic look, but honestly I just think it's trash).

Lastly, the fourth website I will look over is Tumblr. When you visit the website (and only if you're logged in), you will find seven options for posting and six options to navigate through the website on the toolbar. Their colors consist of a navy bluish hue, leaning closer to the cyan as opposed to the magenta. It's easy on the eyes so it doesn't really need any dark skin like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook would. Its toolbar consists of symbols rather than words -- similar to how Instagram showcases their toolbar options. The first option is a house, the home page, which shows the user the RSS feed. The second option is a compass, which showcases what's trending to the user or recommends posts or blogs depending on the user's own reblogged content. There's a variety of other options in this tab which includes Staff picks, Text, Photos, GIFs, Quotes, Chats, Audio, Video, and Asks. The next option is an envelope symbol, which shows the messages you've been given to by others. (And it organizes them based on which blog the message was sent to), as you can have multiple blogs into one account but only one  main blog. The next symbol is a chat symbol with a face on it, which I believe allows you to chat with others. Next is a thunder symbol which shows notifications of who followed you, reblogged your post, or like your post. And lastly, a person symbol which showcases your Likes, Following, Settings, Help, and other Tumblr blogs you've created. At the top right, there is also a pencil button as to serve as a shortcut for when you'd like to post but not necessarily want to leave the page you're currently on.

The options available to post are a typical text post, a photo, a quote, a link, a format showcasing a chat (where you don't chat with others, but you might simulate a chat), audio, and video.

I've never gotten used to Tumblr after the numerous times I tried to integrate to it because all my friends had one back in high school. I think it's a neat idea and there's a lot of organizational opportunities because of all the hashtags and there's lots of room to format your website the way you like. I know I've followed a lot of artists on here but unfortunately, I don't use this site anymore.

All in all, I think my favorite in terms of interface would have to be Instagram because I do like the simple format more than something congested like Facebook. However, I'm still really mad about their icon change because I think their current one is so plain and uninspired. Although the social media platform, out of these four, that I use the most would have to be Twitter, as most of my friends are there.