Facebook cards! A Google now approach to the Facebook timeline

This article has also been published on Medium.

Seeing how Facebook’s design has evolved over the past years and how much time people spend on Facebook, I wanted to explore how their Facebook experience can become richer.

Facebook already knows (based on a user data and likes) : where S/He lives, favorite sport team, TV shows, Movies, Books/Authors, Artist…etc.

So what if users could get richer information on things they like based on their data.

Introducing Facebook Cards :

Facebook Cards is a concept that crossed my mind nearly a year ago, and was left aside for a moment, but with the last Facebook’s timeline redesign, it encouraged me to take up where I left off.

Facebook cards is based on contextual information. Depending on the context, it can show you the current weather, your favorite Sport team live score or when your favorite TV Show will be aired.

I love how Google Now uses all the data Google has about a user, to generate useful and rich information they might need. And this is what I tried to bring to Facebook with this concept, creating a more interactive experience based on user likes and data.

Here is a look at the different Facebook cards I created for now :

How a card looks like :

Each card contains different information :

In my first version, I started with a simpler but more Googley design style, but when I started working again on the concept, I realized that it needed a more vibrant design and a better way of interacting with the card, and so I included a picture, actions (see reminder card for example) and links to pages.

What it means for the business :

I believe that the Facebook Cards is a concept that is not only good for users, but also for the business. Once people get used to the concept, Facebook can gradually include sponsored promotions to the cards, like concerts/sport games/movies/whatever ticket sales, gifts, sponsored stories/news and the list goes on :

Cards also help create a link between Pages and Businesses, by providing real value from those businesses, by not only receiving updates from let’s say a sport team, but also getting real time scores, or not only getting updates from a local business but also receiving new product promotions with a card users can interact with.

[Prototype] The Chrome extension

Now that you know what Facebook Cards is, here is a Chrome Extension prototype to see it in action (It only does weather for now) :

The pictures are provided via the Panoramio API, they are under the copyright of their owners.

What do you think?

What do you think of this concept? What are other cards you’d like to see? Please share your thoughts and share this post if you liked it.