Facebook changes avatar icons: to reflect gender equality

In addition to changing its logo for the first time in ten years, Facebook has also made a series of adjustments to its icons. Like the logo, these changes may go unnoticed if you don't look carefully. But Facebook's determination to make changes is motivated by ulterior motives.

The biggest change is the position of the female avatar. The original "Add Friend" icon had a male avatar in front and a female avatar in the back. Visually, the male avatar was slightly larger than the female one. But the new icon puts the female avatar in front and adjusts the sizes of the two to the same level. The two male and one female icons in the "Group" function have also changed. The female avatar, which was originally placed in the back right, has been moved to the front center.

These small changes were led by Facebook designer Caitlin Winner, who shared her reasons for making these changes on Medium.

As a designer who had just joined Facebook, she liked everything about it. But when she entered the work and saw the icons in PS, she felt frustrated and angry. In order to put the male head portrait in the front, there had to be an extra "gap" on the shoulder of the female head portrait. She believed that Facebook, as a website with global influence, should not be rough in these details.

The spirit advocated by Facebook is "Nothing at Facebook is someone else's problem". Caitlin decided to take action herself and fill the "gap" on the female profile picture.

A series of changes began. In addition to giving the female avatars a complete shoulder, Caitlin also felt that these avatars should not remain the same. She designed different hairstyles for the avatars to distinguish women of different personalities and ages.

Changing only the female avatar seemed to make the old male avatar look more dull. So she made some minor changes to the male avatar. Caitlin then adjusted the size and position of the icons. She changed all the icons that seemed to have a male-dominated connotation.

These are just some minor changes, but as a designer, Caitlin is very concerned about them. She believes that these frequently used symbols will affect people's cognition, and Facebook should be an equal and diverse platform. What's gratifying is that when Caitlin reported a series of ideas to her supervisor, the supervisor readily agreed.

In fact, the change of Facebook's icon series has already begun. Last year, designer Julyanne Liang made the center of the notification icon "small earth" not only Europe and America, but also Asia if you are in Asia. This is also a kind of respect.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.