Designing Facebook Home” Video Gives Rare Look At Prototypes And Iteration Process

Facebook Home’s launcher was inspired by Lunchables. That’s just one nugget of insight into Facebook’s design process from a presentation it gave to Bay Area designers in May and that it’s now released as a video. The 40-minute clip illustrates how Home evolved, iteration by iteration. Facebook’s Julie Zhuo introduces it saying “the things that the articles never write about is the journey.”

“We all just see the final product, we see the design in its completed state, and we don’t really get to tell the story about all of the things that happen along the way, the ups and downs, the bad ideas we tried, the endless iteration and critique,” product design director Zhuo explains. Designing Facebook Home, embedded below, tells that story.

While that end product hasn’t gained the traction Facebook might have hoped for, it’s slowly getting better. The relentless brainstorming and testing process exposed here are why Facebook keeps evolving, and why Home could eventually become a livable mobile “apperating system.”

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