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Comment by bretthopper | Hacker News Reader

Regardless of your thoughts on the actual Home product, this product page is incredibly well designed and thought out.

Agreed, but it's also an interesting product. I'm around a lot of high school aged people, and they are incredibly social. They don't really use a lot of apps, just ones that help them do social things. Building a frontend around the social experience is a clear win for at least this age group. I could see it being a bad experience for me, but younger people will flock to this. They don't care about Android vs. iOS, but they will care about a direct improvement in how social is treated. I think this is a big win for FB.

But yes, very well designed product page, with good use of media. I don't waste time with video, but I was able to catch the experience anyway. That's rare in this age of "spend 5 minutes just sitting on this page".

Isn't it weird that there are only girls in the video?

It's only natural - the home is the place for women :D

Flippant ironic sexism is still sexism.

Admonishments aside, anyone who took Marketing 101 can see that this product is clearly designed for socially adept women 18-30. Most clearly evident from the opening video, and Facebook's marketing team will be canny enough to know exactly what they are doing and who they want to reach.

What, we aren't even allowed to joke about sexism now?

No. Hacker News is serious business.

No, because offending someone is the very worst thing you can do in the world.

The problem, as with all sexist/racist/homophobic/etc jokes, is that even though you recognise that it's a joke, people who read it don't necessarily do so, and these kind of comments enable the people who believe this stuff to continue to say it, and to believe it's acceptable. When you're exposing your writing to potentially thousands of readers, you have to consider this.

It's how reddit went from joking ironically about sexism/racism/homophobia to now featuring pockets where that kind of thing thrives.

While I don't want to justify making these kind of jokes to your friends, it's very different when you're with five of your best mates who all recognise that you're joking and understand that that kind of comment is sexist, to saying that kind of thing on the internet.

This probably feels like an overreaction - I'm not offended by the comment, just trying to explain why having them is an issue.

Always wink it when it's a joke [0]

[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poes_law

What about the sexism of Facebook's advertisement?

Huh? I don't get it.

Agree, though is it actually much different from say http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ ?

I would say it is. A hero animation carries much more information than a single image does.

for anyone else interested in what approach they were using for it:

Interesting; cinemagraph is a reference to a style of .gif animation popularized on tumblr and reddit's /r/cinemagraphs.

Yes I agree. Did you notice the clock widget even updates to the correct time in the "Get notifications where you need them" section?

Surprised they don't have a "notify me on Facebook when this is available" button

It's pretty, but I left with no idea what exactly the product is.

It's a Facebook.

Same problem as ~4 years ago when people first saw the iPad: "What exactly is it?" "It's iPad." "How do I quantify it in my paradigm of notebook computers?" "You don't."

You're trying to quantify it as a smartphone. Facebook is positioning it as...well...a Facebook.

That seems like a somewhat poor example. When people first saw the iPad, it was quite rightly explained as "basically a big iPhone", which was completely sufficient to get an idea of the product.

I like your analogy. People have been talking about a "Facebook Phone" for years now, but Home actually makes a lot more sense than trying to compete directly by forking Android or building their own hardware. It feels like one of those ideas that seems so obvious after the fact that you wonder how you never thought of it.

No, because the iPad is pretty obvious: you touch to screen. I can't even tell what's going on. Is it replacement for the lock screen? But then what's up with the messenger? Why is there an ad for an htc phone, but it's also android.... It's just confusing what they are trying to communicate other than attractive people.

Frankly

It's just confusing what they are trying to communicate other than attractive people.

They aren't trying to communicate anything other than attractive people. The target market doesn't know or care what "htc" or "android" or "lock screen" etc are. The target market spends money to be attractive people.

It's basically a Facebook branded home screen. Instead of the regular home screen with a bunch of icons to launch different applications, the home screen is now essentially a Facebook application. There's also some stuff to access Facebook functionality (chat, etc.) while using other applications.

Did you try leaning in?

I mean, I gathered some things. And yes, I watched the large video (after some buffering issues) scrolled through the bullets of features and let it sink in.

I wasn't drawn in enough to read all of the text, but I did take in the headlines and subheadings. And form all of that I left with the impression that it was either:

a. some sort of app for Android (standalne) b. an OS (some kind of lite version of Android with just Facebook social features) and/or; c. a phone that Facebook were making with HTC;

... or some combination thereof.

I understand now that it's a homescreen replacement. But that certainly wasn't the impression I left with.

Seems to be a (sort of) Flipboard(like) OS(like) app

amazing design

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