Software Testing Blog

For most software companies, user feedback generally comes in the form of emails, surveys, bug reports and the like. For Facebook, it recently came in the form of an entire South Park episode (warning: spoiler alert!).

Earlier this week, South Park lampooned the social media giant (along with Jim Cramer, chat roulette, Tron and Yahtzee) in an episode with major usability undertones. You can watch the entire episode here, but in case you’re at work, here’s brief synopsis from Wikipedia:

When Kyle, Cartman and Kenny make Stan a Facebook profile without his knowledge, he becomes frustrated with everyone asking him for friend requests. After he gets fed up with Facebook, Stan tries to delete his profile but is sucked into a virtual Facebook world. Meanwhile, Kyle starts trying to find ways to get more friends on Facebook after he drastically starts losing them due to his befriending of a third-grade friendless Facebook user, who everyone thinks is a loser.

Compared to other South Park “guests”, Facebook made it through the episode relatively unscathed, and for that they should be thankful. That said, it’s still South Park, a place where weaknesses must be exploited. So, here are a few feedback items I was able to relate to typical user feedback:

Security: Stan has an account created by his friends, without his knowledge. Embarrassing pictures of him are posted without his approval. Of course, in the real world, Facebook has developed numerous features to let users control such things. In fact, Facebook ranked #1 amongst all leading social media companies in this category during our Social Media Bug Battle from 2009.

Usability: Throughout the episode, Stan expresses deep frustration with the Facebook UI. He doesn’t know how to update his relationship status, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Wendy. He’s completely clueless about how to add friends; how and when to “poke” them, to say nothing of fertilizing Farmville crops. Deleting his profile is another story entirely. But shortly after being “sucked in” to the Facebook world, he’s a virtual pro, having amassed over 800,000 friends.

Content: Stan hates Farmville. He doesn’t want to get updates from his grandmother or her friends and he really, really doesn’t want to play Yahtzee. Of course, Facebook has made it incredibly easy to customize what you see in your feed, who’s updates you receive and what activities you choose to participate in. As soon as my mom starts sending me quizzes about which 80′s sitcom star I am, she’s blocked. Sorry mom.

Gawker says the episode explains “everything that is annoying with Facebook.” Perhaps from a cultural perspective – which I suppose would have to include all social media – but from a software and user experience point of view, this statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

Consider that South Park’s critiques of the Facebook application are nothing new. Similiar feedback on security, privacy, content and overall usability are likely submitted to the Facebook product team on minute-by-minute basis. This is especially true when Facebook decides to update its UI, as evidenced by the thousands of whiny posts from users, as well as a dozen or so front-page TechCrunch stories. In other words, there’s no shortage of this type of feedback.

The point is that Facebook is listening to its users. More importantly, it is incorporating these suggestions into each new version. Other software companies would be wise to emulate this practice (just leave Yahtzee out of it).

Lastly, you know you’ve arrived when South Park dedicates 22 minutes to you.  So congrats, Facebook!