Annelie Näs

Track answers and clicks on notifications

When you get a notification on Facebook and check it, it automatically says to be “read”, even if you do not click on the link that is provided in the notification. You can always see the latest notifications in the box in the down right corner of the Facebook webpage, and if you press a list of “view all” you can see a long list of your latest notifications. Here you can also choice what notifications you want to receive.

Though I like these feature, I could see ways that it could be improved. Most of all I would like to see a “tracking system” like you have on your email. In this tracking system it could show which links you actually pressed on, and which wall posts that you responded to, or “liked.”

This feature would make it easier for you to check what you have responded to what you have not acted on. Similar to the function that Facebook email provides. So it becomes easier to remember to follow up on you Facebook correspondence. Because I think many like me many times just “check” their Facebook, and don’t respond to anything. This means that notifications are opened and many times forgotten about.

Suggestion: Add the features that are currently in the Facebook inbox, where you can see which mails you have responded to, and if what emails you have not read. The inbox also offers the opportunity to mark emails an unread which I think could work nicely with the Facebook notifications. The only difference would be that as long as you had seen the notification the red flag would go away, which the digits (which show the amount of unread email you have) do not.

This could look something like this:

Give a reason to the suggestions

When you log in to your Facebook and get on the home page, you have messages on the top the right column which suggests that you connect with people that you have a friend in common with or perhaps became a fan of a page that your friends are fans of. Lately this “message box”* also gives you suggestions on whom of your friends to connect with.

This was a feature I really saw potential in when it came and also used. Until I realized that it is not suggesting that you should connect with people you have not connected with in awhile, it suggests that you contact people that have not had much “action” on Facebook, for example;  no one has written on their wall in a while, or people who have not completed their Facebook profile yet. Basically it is programmed to suggest that you connect with inactive users.

Example:

This probably benefits Facebook more than you, as they end up with more active users, if people help others to become more active. Sure, this might be nice, however; I think more people would use it, if it helped them as well. How about adding features that show when and how you last connected with the person that the box* suggests that you should connect with?

Suggestion: Give people more reasons to connect with friends they haven’t talked to in a while, by showing the date of the last correspondence. Or say “Lisa has wrote on your wall three times without getting a respond from you, maybe you should contact her.” This way, people would feel more of a need to connect to the suggested people, and perhaps even be thankful for reminding them, at least I would. If they the box does want you to connect with an inactive person says so “No one has written on Joey’s wall in three weeks, maybe you should change that?”

*With message box or box, I mean the automated suggestion generator.

Allow comments on event wall posts

On Facebook you are able to comment on statuses, pictures, albums, links, wallposts etc. Honestly, you can comment on almost everything. However, one the things I would like to comment on, you cannot. I’m talking about other people wall posts in events. Sure you could post on the same wall and hope that the person whose post you wanted to comment on checks the wall again soon. Or you can send an email to the person who posted the comment. However, neither of these alternatives seem very social to me.

Suggestion: Add the possibility to comment on the wall posts in events from people who you may or may not be friends with on Facebook. In that way it will be easier to comment and the person in question will receive a notification of you comment and your answer will be available to all the other people who will visit the event site.