Gallery: Facebook For iPad: Key Screens, First Impressions
01facebook-app-main-interface
For anyone suffering from the visual overload of Facebook’s web iteration — rife with font chaos and real-time Ticker updates that transform our “friends” into agents of distraction — the new Facebook app for iPad offers immediate relief. Our gut first impression? We like it. This despite the fact that it did crash on us (once) during a status update maneuver, and [other sources are reporting bugs](http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228926/20111011/facebook-app-for-ipad-disappointing-full-of-bugs-users-ios-ios-5-apps-apple-zynga-farmvilleiphone-ev.htm). A beta build of the app was [leaked inside an iPhone update](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/official-ipad-facebook-app-hidden-inside-iphone-app/), so this final live version isn’t necessarily a surprising build. Nonetheless, it offers a much tighter, more Facebook-familiar information design than apps like Friendly, which, until yesterday, was one of your only options for navigating through a native, 1024 x 768 Facebook experience on the iPad. In total, Facebook for iPad reminds us why so many browser-based services really begin to sing when iterated in app form: They right-size fonts, subjugate or fully strip away seldom-used product features, and hook into Apple’s standardized user interface elements for more pleasing navigation. Of course this initial version of Facebook for iPad doesn’t include the [upcoming Timeline feature](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/facebooks-f8-open-graph/all/1), which is currently in beta, but could eventually muck up a currently pleasing user interface. For now, we’re happy to enjoy the winning app features, which we showcase here. The main interface (screenshot above) is split into two panes, with features on the left and sliding active windows on the right (for example, swiping left on the news feed reveals all your chat buddies). We appreciate the clean, orderly layout of the left-hand navigation bar. Goodbye chaos, hello legibility. Click "view all" or "next" to see the rest of what we've found.
02whos-nearby
Facebook always seems on the precipice of privacy-challenging creepiness, and the app’s Nearby screen might first cause a bit of alarm. But what you see in this screen isn’t a real-time feed of my friends’ locations. No, this is simply a map view of my friend’s recent check-ins. Pinching in the map reveals larger swaths of topography — as well as the check-ins of friends traveling the globe. Because, yes, I really need to know what some long forgotten co-worker-cum-stranger is doing in Amsterdam.
03friends-view
Click on Friends in the left-hand nav bar, and you’ll be greeted by generously sized thumbnails of all the people you’ve friended. This is also where you’ll find a similar layout for swiping through pages you’ve liked. We love the big icons, if only because they reveal visual detail that’s lost on Facebook’s browser iteration. That said, we’d love to see a slider that adjusts thumbnail size, or even a Settings option for similar control.
04gallery-view
The theme for this app is visual pop and glory, and that’s most obviously manifest in the Photos feature. Here we see a graphical overview of my various galleries. I’m reluctant to go so far as to call this screen “fun.” But it does compel me to actually look at all my old photos — and share them with friends, passing the iPad around like the electronic photo album that Apple wants the tablet to be.
05high-res-photos
Click on an individual photo, and it expands to consume your whole screen (or as much of the screen as possible if the shot is a vertical). You can pinch out to look at image detail, and also use a comfy, iOS-standard menu to like, tag, save or delete an image, or even make it your profile shot. In total, the image-oriented capabilities of the new app are quite impressive. Or maybe even “fun” if you deign to use that word.
06status-update
When you’re finally ready to post a page update, a quick click on Status sends you to the Update Status box you see here. We’d like flexibility in our menu size and orientation. The text entry box is quite small, and only shows eight lines of text before scrolling. The update menu includes icon-driven options to link friends to your updates (creepy), check-in with a location (creepy), include a photo (perfectly non-creepy — most of the time), and assign your update to either a Public or Friends broadcast. Here I’ve only decided to reveal my location. Creepy, yes, but with a knowing nod to sanity and reason.
