Homepage

Hi, my name is Vikki Vaughan, and today we'll take a deep dive into the different parts of our Facebook homepage. We'll explore the newsfeed, the place on our homepage that displays posts from friends as well as any posts that we make. These posts include comments, photos, videos, and more.

This series is designed for people with low vision. If you use a screen reader, be sure to check out Hadley's screen reading version of this series.

After logging into our Facebook account, we land on our homepage. The middle of our homepage is called our newsfeed. This is where many of us spend the majority of our time on Facebook.

Whenever we post something, like a status update or photo, it shows up in our newsfeed. It also shows us posts from friends, as well as any posts that we've liked in the recent past. Sometimes we also see posts from people who aren't our Facebook friends or from pages that we haven't liked. This usually happens because our Facebook friends liked or commented on these posts. The more we interact with friends on Facebook, such as liking their post, the higher up on our newsfeed their posts will be.

Likewise, the more popular something is on Facebook in general, the higher up on our newsfeed it will be placed. A post with many comments and likes, for example, will rate higher than one with fewer comments or likes. We'll learn all about likes in another workshop in this series. I hope you'll join me there. If you'd like more information about how to adjust our newsfeed options, check out the resource section below this video.

In the middle of our newsfeed, we find the publisher. The publisher is an edit field that contains a question, What's on your mind and then your name. This is where we start a conversation with our Facebook friends. These conversations are called Post. When we select the edit field with our mouse pointer, a new window opens. The first time we make a post, Facebook might ask us to select our audience or who we want to see our post. We can also make this selection in our settings menu under privacy. For more information about this setting, check out the first workshop in this series entitled, Welcome to Facebook.

We're back in our publisher window. This is where we insert our own status update, photos, or videos to Facebook. We'll spend more time here in another workshop in this series. Let's close this window for now by pressing our Escape key.

In the top left corner of our homepage, we find an edit field labeled, Search Facebook. We use this search field to find friends or groups that might be of interest to us.

Below the search field in the left hand column, we find our Facebook menu. We can select the items in our menu to quickly move to other parts of Facebook. These links help us find friends, locate groups that we've joined, shop on Facebook's Marketplace, and watch videos using the Watch function.

Moving to the right of our newsfeed, we find a series of buttons. The button that looks like a grid pattern is the menu button. When we select it with our pointer, we find a list of the different pages in Facebook, much like the menu in our left pane. It contains a search field to seek out friends, groups, and events. We can also select from the menu to create a post, story, or room. Let's move back to our homepage with, you guessed it, our Escape key.

Our next button to the right is the Messenger button. It's an instant messaging feature that's built into Facebook. Okay. Let's say we want to send an instant message to a Facebook friend. We enter our friend's name in the search field. I'll use Hadley as an example. We then select their profile picture in the list below the search field.

Our cursor lands in the message field, so we can begin typing our message. We can also send photos, videos, and stickers. When we're ready to send, we select the Send button to the right of the edit field. If our friend is currently viewing their Facebook wall, they will receive the message instantly. If they're away, our message will pop up under their notification heading. It's a great way to send private messages back and forth in real time. We'll select the Close chat button to close this window.

To the right of the Messenger button, we find the Notifications button. When we select it, we open a list of recent posts from Facebook friends and groups that we follow. We select the button again to close the window. Notifications is also one of the places where we see new friend request and messages.

The last button at the top is our Account button. Let's select it with our pointer. A dropdown menu appears with several options. At the top of the list, we see our Facebook name next to our profile picture. We'll select it to open our timeline. This is where we see all of our posts. Let's select the Home button to move back to our homepage.

There are other options under the Account button. These include Settings and privacy, Help and support, Display & accessibility, Give feedback, and Log Out. When we select one of these options, it opens a new window. Check out the first workshop in this series for helpful settings under the Display & accessibility option.

As with our other buttons, we either select the button again or press the Escape key to close the window. Jumping back to the top of our newsfeed we find several navigation icons. At the far left, we find Home. When we select it with our mouse pointer, we're taken to the top of our homepage. It's really handy if we've been scrolling down through our newsfeed and we wish to jump back to the top. It also refreshes the page and displays the most current post in our newsfeed. If we're visiting another part of Facebook, the Home button will quickly take us back to our homepage.

Moving to our right, the next button is Watch. In the watch page, we can scroll through various videos. Our next button is Facebook's Marketplace. Here we can browse all types of items in our area that are for sale.

The final button on this row is the Groups button. Here we see posts from groups that we've joined. Below these navigation buttons, we find Stories. These are visual posts like photos and short videos. They are great way to share everyday moments with our friends.

Stories are intended to be a quick snapshot, and they disappear after 24 hours. If we wish to reply to a story, we place our cursor in the reply field below the video. Only the person who created the story can view our reply. We select the Close button in the top left corner to close Stories.

To the right of the Stories button, we find Reels. These are short videos that users create for fun. They can include music, text overlays, and effects.

The last button in this row is the Rooms button. This button allows us to have live audio conversations or video chats with our friends.

Facebook is a great way to connect with others. As we build our network of friends, we have more and more opportunities for connection. Join me in the next workshop as we discuss adding friends to our Facebook page. I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me.