Facebook’s Design Strategy: A Status Update

“In 2005, we decided to create a photo product that we called Photos. Other people at the time were using names like Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, right? Very niche-y,” [Christopher Cox, VP of products] says. “Instead, we use common words. We recede into the background. We design a place where there aren’t new objects to trip over. Photos are photos. Chat is chat. Groups are groups. Everything just is.”

Can’t agree more. I like the cut-the-bs approach.