Users are introduced to Facebook's new home page

On the launch of Facebook’s new home page users are first given an introduction to the home page and it’s new features with simplified graphic and instructional text.

Written text simplifies the intro into three easy steps using action verbs “see”, “access”, and “manage”.

The introduction is a good way to ease the user into the new home page and it’s changes.

{fullname} - Impersonal DM from a Twitter User

With the popularity of social media such as Twitter, one of the most important aspects that can be forgotten by users is being genuine.

Because it is so easy to automate things online, one can forget that being human is critical to creating real relationships. As an active user on social networks I felt these types of marketing messages (pictured above) are odd in that they pretend to be genuine and personable but give off the feeling that a machine instead of a human being is sending it.

So when thinking about users it’s important to keep in mind that people have feelings and emotions and are not machines.

There probably isn’t many people who are fans of automated messages, especially ones that pretend to be genuine and coming from another person.

Pankaj Kedia, director of Intel’s Global Ecosystems Program for Mobile Internet Devices and Smart Phones, responded to an email question:  “Consumers want to do multiple things at the same time: listen to music while browsing the Web, look for directions while looking at your calendar and talking with your friends, and so on,” -CNET, News

As the tablet race heats up with the announcement of Apple’s iPad, an important feature that could be a difference for users is multitasking. But can users really multitask?

An example of multitasking using technology is using mobile phones while driving. There’s a lot of controversy around this because the use of a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of an accident.

And some laws have been enacted to ban the user of cell phones while driving because drivers exhibit increased impairment over intoxicated drivers.

So even if new tablet devices offer the ability to multitask over Apple’s iPad, can users even handle doing more than one task at a time effectively?

If not, then multitasking is not much of an advantage to have on a tablet device.