Tanner Christensen

Facebook Profile & Creative Tools · 2014 — 2018 (Facebook tenure)

A profile you could make your own

My contribution
I led work across a group of seven designers on Profile, then led design for the Camera Effects Platform across teams in Menlo Park, Seattle, and London.
Launch
Camera Effects Platform at F8 2017

The team developed and tested the platform through rolling research sessions.

Exploratory Facebook Profile layouts for a seller, including a shop button and storefront sections.
An exploration of how a Profile might adapt for someone selling their work. I also explored versions for job seekers, influencers, and people who wanted to share as little as possible.

What to show, and who could see it

After working on Ads Manager, I joined the Facebook Profile team and led efforts across a group of seven designers. Research pointed to several needs: people wanted to recognize who they connected with, express their identities, and understand who could see their Profile information.

I used international research studies, variant tests, and lab studies to understand behavior. Alongside a product manager and engineering manager, I explored ways to make Profile more expressive, help people connect, and make them feel safer about what they shared.

A prototype I created for a more flexible way to customize the information on a Facebook Profile.

The team shipped features including dynamic and artistic cover photos, an updated Facebook camera experience, and more explicit feed stories for Profile updates.

From a Pride frame to a platform

Around that time, Profile product managers noticed that people around the world were using third-party sites to add filters and frames to their profile pictures. A hackathon project that let people use a custom frame to celebrate gay pride in the United States then became an overnight success. The team began asking how people could express the causes, beliefs, and events they cared about through their profile pictures.

We envisioned a platform where anyone could create artwork for Facebook users. As lead designer for the Camera Effects Platform, I worked with teams in Menlo Park, Seattle, and London. My work had three parts: understand creator workflows, help build a tool for flexible artwork including augmented reality, and make that artwork easy to discover and use.

Different teams had different needs. The Facebook Camera would use artwork created on the platform, Profile needed new frames, and teams across Groups, Events, and Pages were interested too. I worked with designers in several locations to develop patterns that could support those needs.

We tested ideas in rolling research sessions, from concepts through prototypes, before launching the platform at Facebook’s F8 conference in 2017.

Earlier in my time at Facebook, I worked on the Ads Manager redesign.

Next project: Drwer →