UPDATE: Clearly I suck. As many commenters have pointed out, 75% of Facebook users kept the new version. Still 60% didn’t even want to try the new version, so that still says a lot. Thanks to those who pointed out the error!
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Let me ask you something. If you rolled out a new design for your web site and 75% of your site users told you they preferred the original design, would you:
a) Scrap the new design?
b) Ask your users to provide input on a better design?
c) Force the new design on them anyway?
If you’re a savvy business owner, you probably went with either a) or b) or perhaps both. If you happen to be the management at Facebook, you would have chosen c)…apparently:
To date, approximately 40 million, or 40 percent, of Facebook users have tried the beta version of the new site, which debuted in July. Of that group, 75 percent remained with the new version, according to the company.
As for the roughly 25 percent of Facebook users who did not continue with the beta version of the site, they’ll need to go along with the new redesign as it’s fully rolled out over the next few weeks–whether they like it or not.
You could argue that social networking users are always reluctant to change, but I would disagree. Yahoo just revealed a new version of Flickr and I love it.
What do you think? Will Facebook users eventually learn to love the new design, or has Facebook made a big error with the rollout of a new design that 75% of people hated?
PS. Keep in mind that 60% of Facebook users weren’t interested at all in a new design. 
