Recently I noticed a little change in the Graph Search UI. It went from this (plain):
to this (more pronounced search field):
Even though it had the same text "Type to search for people, places and things", how does making it look more like search field help ?
I found this in a blog note. No idea if its any trustful though:
Graph Search A/B Testing
Facebook is doing some A/B testing on their Graph Search.
They are testing their Original layout, vs 2 new layouts (A & B).
A few weeks from now, we should be able to see the declared winner (if any).
Apparently Facebook is testing your hypothesis: Making search field look more like search field helps. Help what, that I do not know.
An interview with Rasmussen (Graph Search PO) tends to confirm it is A/B testing:
Facebook Graph Search has yet to roll out to all users, and Rasmussen writes that part of the reason for the partial rollout so far was to allow live A/B testing on real users — a process that circumvents the possibility of endless internal discussions. “Without live usage we’d just be arguing all day,” he writes.
I suspect that one of the things that is being A/B testing here is whether or not users recognize that this is a search field. The magnifying glass icon is a classic bit of iconography for search. Will this element be prominent as a 'search box' without the prominence of the magnifying glass icon?
I suspect that Facebook is interested in defining their brand as the iconography for social graph searching, and thus wish to 'displace' the magnifying glass icon in the minds of users
