The new Facebook UI is clean and simple, as one has come to expect
from Facebook.

I'm sure they discussed this over and over internally, but the new
design seems to violate some basic UI rules. The kind that usually,
Facebook is a bastion of.

The rule is simple - don't put destructive actions near
non-destructive actions. Or more modestly, wherever possible lower
the risk of click-error for the user.

Facebook has put their new status icons right next to the logo.
Clicking on a status icon (friend requests, mail, notifications)
reveals a contextual menu. Clicking on the logo whisks you back to
the homepage. I wonder how many users are going to mistakenly end up
at the homepage when all they wanted to do was view a new friend
request.