Facebook hires design firm staff, attempting to fix its image?
Facebook has hired yet another company, this time in the shape of a design firm.
The social network snatched up the team at Bolt Peters, a 10-year-old design firm in San Francisco, according to a post on the firm’s blog put up earlier this week.
Bolt | Peters, which has worked on more than 200 projects with clients that include Sony, HP, Electronic Arts, Volkswagen and the Washington Post, said the firm will closing up shop next month.
“While we’ll miss working with our amazing clients, we’re stoked about Facebook’s commitment to user experience, and the design team is a critical part of this,†said Nate Bolt, the company’s president.
“We’re thrilled the Bolt Peters team is joining Facebook,†a company spokeswoman said, confirming the deal.
The news was also shared on the Facebook design team’s page on the social network Thursday.
“The design team is growing again!†the post reads. “Some of the award-winning Bolt Peters team is joining Facebook as we grow our user experience research group. For more than 10 years, Bolt Peters has worked with companies to improve the design of their sites, apps, devices, video games, and cars.â€
The move comes in a similar fashion as another Facebook deal last week. In that instance, Facebook hired the team of Lightbox, an Android app similar to Instagram.
The move was seen around the Web as a step by Facebook to address its troubles generating revenue from mobile, a problem that could hurt the Menlo Park, Calif., company as it has disclosed in documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Similarly, the hiring of a design firm could be seen as a way to fix the issues Facebook faces every time it implements a design change of any size.
Earlier this week, it was discovered Facebook was testing a redesign of its Timeline feature, and once again, some users were not happy.
Perhaps, Facebook has grown tired of unnerving its users each time it wants to see how a new feature might play out and hopes the people its hired from Bolt Peters can help solve the issue.
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