In the same way that they gave us a preview of profile changes last time, fishing for feedback, Facebook is giving previews of the next possible profile changes to users to see what people think.

There’s no point in commenting on the photos or notes, unless you’re discussing the changes with other users. Facebook asks that you email profilespreview@facebook.com instead. Hopefully having them manage it privately means even more feedback will be considered.

The main changes?

• I’ve always considered the end user first, even before the developer, and the way in which they are changing the profile seems to do just that. Similar to the iPhone version of the site (where efficiency in information design is even more important), profiles have tabs. The most frequently-changed, and thus the most viewed portion of the profile is what you’ll see first.
• The layout of the entire site is wider than it was before. You can notice this because the whitespace (blue, in this example) between the link to the “Inbox (1)” at the top, and “home” is much wider than before. One of the great things about Google projects and sites like Netvibes is the use of all the available screen real estate. Facebook might not be in a position to change the layout that drastically, but at only 800 pixels wide, the width is beginning to become constraining. In a trend possibly started by the latest New York Times redesign/realign, sites have begun adapting to larger screen resolutions. Considering the density of the Facebook homepage, perhaps it’s time to consider 1024×768 a minimum resolution, although the iPhone has made this a more confusing situation. Application developers will have to adapt to the new wide-column width if this change goes through.
• Photos is the third tab, although it seems likely that Media would be a better choice. Perhaps the Photos tab will be a listing of all the albums of a user, but this is already done with the Photos application. Naming it “Media” would allow for boxes of videos, audio clips, and books, and thus seems much more appropriate.
• Many of the changes in the last set of proposed changes never went through. The mini-feed has undergone many aesthetic changes, including a line indicating a speech bubble in relevant items, and a huge amount of whitespace between feed items. I would guess and hope that neither of these changes will go through.

Update: The Facebook Developer blog has some more information about the changes. It seems like applications can only go in the narrow columns of the main tabs, or in tabs of their own. We’ll see if this decision sticks.

Another update: a less tidy profile picture shows that the wall will be merged with the mini-feed. This is a major change, one that I have a feeling won’t go well with users. ∞