3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
blog.garrytan.com
3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
1–10 of 92 posts
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#2Maybe the original design had the even padding but facebook A/B tested it and found that people are more likely to read the comments below if there is less padding on the bottom?
While I agree that is visually looks more balanced, it takes more than my opinion to decide that facebook made a design mistake.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#3It must be a really quiet day for this to make the front page! I can't believe I just wasted time reading that.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#4I'm interested to see if this gets changed or if it becomes an inside joke at Facebook.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#5I've noticed Facebook has been doing a lot of AB testing on me lately. [Example: My Graph Search bar is now White-on-Blue instead of Blue-on-Blue. Also, the sidebar with birthday notifications used to display Friend Requests that told you who Friend Requested you; now it's gone.]
This spacing behavior is likely also a part of that. It just happened to me very, very recently, and there used to be sufficient padding in that UI location.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#6I don't think it makes any difference.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#7Facebook has since updated its design, and the padding is better balanced. My account got upgraded to the new design a month or so back. I assume they are rolling it out slowly.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#8Maybe the original design had the even padding but facebook A/B tested it and found that people are more likely to read the comments below if there is less padding on the bottom? While I agree that is visually looks more balanced, it takes more than my opinion to decide that facebook made a design mistake.
This is a perfectly reasonable explanation that is often overlooked by designers. This also happens to be why I don't particularly love design anymore. What looks right and what converts the best are two different animals, and I don't like purposely creating ugly shit with my name on it.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#9Maybe the original design had the even padding but facebook A/B tested it and found that people are more likely to read the comments below if there is less padding on the bottom? While I agree that is visually looks more balanced, it takes more than my opinion to decide that facebook made a design mistake.
This is a perfectly reasonable explanation that is often overlooked by designers. This also happens to be why I don't particularly love design anymore. What looks right and what converts the best are two different animals, and I don't like purposely creating ugly shit with my name on it.
This is often a result of designers failing to step outside their "designer window", if you will, and step into the users' shoes. It's possible to make something look right and translate that into conversions if you have enough of an outside perspective.
That said, it's pretty easy to get too involved in your own work to notice a bigger picture so breaks to step back are highly recommended.
Re: 3px of padding makes all the difference in the world
#10A lot of people (have and will) scoff at the idea 3 whole pixels? And I agree it does seem trivial, and will those 3 pixels really change the way users interact and make users happier? Who knows. I know as a designer it does indeed look better when it's visually balanced, but all that aside, I am a huge fan of craftsmanship and attention to detail in ones craft. More so with crafts made by hand (wood, metal, glass) but also it translates over into design and programming.
As a designer I want to put love and attention into all my designs and I want each one to be better than the last as to always be improving. Those three pixels may not mean much to you, or most, but it's those types of things that when you pull out the magnifying glass or really admire a piece of art, that really matter. A lot of times I fail personally at making sure each detail is right, but I would hope that someone could one day look at my work and say he really paid attention to the details and he wasn't just rushing or not caring about the projects he did.
So I think it's less of wow is this really worth all the fuss over 3 pixels but more of a testament to how Facebook values the details in design. Sure Facebook has design that's decently pleasing to the eyes, but you have to wonder why this went unnoticed. If it was me coding the feed, I would've caught it and fixed but I wonder whoever was doing the coding actually stopped to think about it or tried to fix it and got shot down or whatever reason it could have been. It could've been an honest mistake, or a purposeful one, or just someone trying to meet a deadline.
To send a note out to everyone for a thought to think about, really try to put some sort of personal attention to the details when you're working. Whether it's programing or designing, you may not think opening up your code editor and finding the right line in the CSS to fix those 3 pixels is worth it, but someone one day might see that and have to wonder why and if you care about the quality of your work and the image your putting on your brand, I would take it personally to make sure it was perfect. I think this goes a long way with moving up and getting noticed. Anyone could skip it and it's not the end of the world, but finding people that care enough to put such attention and detail in their work to make sure everything is perfect are the kinds of people that are worth having on your team.