Just a week back social media giant Facebook had redesigned its logo to keep with changing times. Now it has done some serious changes to its “friends” icon to give greater emphasis upon the gender equality. The new icon has craftily placed the woman in the forefront of the man.
The ‘Friends’ appears in the upper right corner of the page, now featuring a woman in front of man. Facebook users will need to strain their eyes a little bit to see the new design change.
Designer Thoughts Upon Bringing Women In Forefront
Facebook designer Caitlin Winners had explained her thoughts for the need of projecting women in the forefront of the company’s icon. She had long noticed that male friend icon was symmetrical but the female glyph appeared to have a chip on her shoulder. She was quite moved by this revelation and brought upon herself to give justice to women and more particularly bring gender equality on a higher level.
She stresses that the symbolism possessed in the current icon was quite understandable that the women appeared to be literally in the shadow of man without a position to lean in. Hence she decided to bring some smart changes by drawing a double silhouette wherein two people of equal sizes will appear together. But after dozens of iteration she abandoned this approach and simply placed the women in front of the man.
The Changes Made In Facebook’s Group Icon
Winner has brought in some changes in the Facebook’s Groups icon. The older icon used to feature two men and one woman wherein one man is placed in the forefront. However in the latest design change the woman has been placed in the foreground while two men are placed in the back.
She has also creatively updated the woman’s and man’s hair in the in the new icon. But the biggest change brought in the icon is the more prominent placement of women in both the Friends and Groups icon.
Reaction To The Changes In Icon
Winner was obviously quite nervous about updating the glyphs in the icon and was expecting some backlash and trouble for this adventure. However she has been praised for her work and Facebook is reaping benefit from her design idea by showcasing itself as a company which respects gender equality.
These new icons have begun to appear on all products across the Facebook and its other platforms. These changes has been implemented on the global level which means these gender equality themed icons will be displaying everywhere with much fanfare.
Icon Theme Is Far Way From Reality
Facebook is highly criticized for not hiring more women and having huge gender gap in employment ratio among other tech firms. Most recent 2014 company diversity report showed that Facebook has 69% of its global work force comprising of men. Among global tech and senior level employees the gender divide is far greater at 85% and 77% respectively. However Facebook is actively working towards bridging this gap by bringing more women in the forefront literally.
