While these changes might seem small in the grander scheme of things, especially considering Facebook released its latest dismal diversity report, it is a step in the right direction.
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She also gave the female icon a fresh new “Darth Vader-like” silhouette giving it a more prominent bob cut, as reported by DesignTaxi. Thanks to Caitlin victor, one of Facebook’s designers, the “Friend” icon unassumingly sitting in the upper right corner of the social network’s page has undergone a few changes in recent months. It used to have a man in the center, between another man and woman.
The magnitude of the symbolism of Facebook’s seemingly innocuous icons is something designer Caitlin victor realized not too long after she started working at the company. The iconic man was symmetrical except for his spiked hairdo but the lady had a chip in her shoulder.
“I assumed no ill intentions, just a lack of consideration”, she wrote.
Continuing with the improvements, victor fixed the icon’s hair design by trying out something different.
Also, victor changed the size and order of the female silhouette in the “friends icon”. It was a design choice because placing the icons next to each other was confusing, victor said.
Victor was nervous about updating the glyphs and kind of expected to get in trouble.
In her statement, Weiner said that while studying the symmetry of the logos, she noticed how the woman was not represented properly.
Lexi Ross, a Product Manager, hacked several much needed additions to Male and Female gender options in profile creation and added the corresponding alternative silhouettes.
Facebook, the world’s largest social media outlet, put women behind men from the outset, likely an unconscious decision that no one thought twice about-because throughout history, women have stood behind men.
She has also tried many kinds of hair styles on both the glyphs and made subtle changes to both the glyphs as well as icons.
As victor notes, this wasn’t the first time Facebook has rethought the inclusiveness of its icons.
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Since last year, the share of women in the company as a whole, and of tech employees, have only gone up one percentage point each.
