Metro Weekly

Facebook’s Helping Hand

Facebook Help Center

I don’t often feel the need to get help while using Facebook — I mean, really, it’s not that complicated — but it’s nice to know that help is available should I ever need it.

That said, I’m fairly impressed with the site’s overhaul of its Help Center. Elegantly designed with a nod toward streamlined simplicity, and anchored by six large pastel blocks that cover things such as privacy, new features, the infernal Timeline, safety resources and games and apps, the revamped center actually seems like a place I might like to visit every so often, just to keep ahead of the Facebook game. The blocks may be a little patronizing, as they tend to call to mind a toddler’s buidling blocks, but no matter — they’re easy on the eye. The ubiquitous search bar is personalized in a friendly, cheerful way, in keeping with that seductive lure of the Facebook: everybody, no matter how obscure (and, yes, even a search bar), is your “friend.”

The left-hand sidebar is the piece de resistance. It drills down, in a graceful, side-swiping manner to exactly what you want to get at. Everything is represented in a clean, pristine manner, and deploys the soothing “Facebook blue,” which one day will likely be a color in the Martha Stewart Living catalogue.

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