Facebook’s Global User Interface
Problem
I want to develop an application interface that will integrate smoothly and will adapt successfully with the global Facebook user interface.
Solution
By using user interface tools provided by Facebook and adhering to de facto standards, your users will find your Facebook application’s user interface inherently intuitive, and your application will evolve smoothly as the main site changes.
Discussion
Facebook application developers are lucky to have a suite of user interface elements prebuilt for them by default. Designers often have a powerful desire to create original work that breaks with convention, but, particularly when developing Facebook applications, the benefit of adhering to standards (both explicit and implicit) far outweighs the potential benefit of originality.
In the case of developing a Facebook application, you will be developing an interface within an interface (see Figure 4-16). Your application will exist within the shell of the global Facebook interface and, possibly even more importantly, your application will live in a vibrant ecosystem of other applications made by Facebook developers just like you.

Figure 4-16. Your application within the Facebook shell
In many ways, the Facebook interface can be thought of like an operating system user interface. In developing their own default applications ...