Cloudmanic Labs

Let’s go back a couple weeks ago - prior to Twitter’s launch of the massive redesign that has been all the rage the last few days.  New, seemingly minor features kept rolling out on a pretty frequent basis.  The problem was that they were being stuffed into spaces that, at least in my mind, were supposed to be pure.  The system was getting convoluted. 

My biggest beef was with the Activity tab.  Quite frankly, I don’t care who my followers are now following.  That information doesn’t deserve its own space.  I figure the suggestions provided by Twitter must have some algorithms that create an educated guess on who and what you’re interested in.  My trust in technology is greater than my trust in most users of technology.

Overall, I was starting to get confused.  And I work on websites for a living.  In fact, I design user interfaces.  Not your average interweb persona looking for funny photos of cats to forward to my BFF and posting shout outs to my homies for a job well done drinking jagerbombs all night. 

It felt as if these changes (really, additions) were taking away the simple structure that Twitter was built upon from day one.  Not to mention the iPhone app was a process unto itself.  How many taps should it take to get to your own Tweet feed?  Definitely not as many licks as it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

I was THIS CLOSE to deactivating my Twitter account.  I cut the cord to Facebook a couple months ago and once the initial withdrawal was over, I felt lighter.  My life was my own again.  Therefore, might as well slash every social networking service that isn’t serving me.

Fast forward to the morning of December 8.  I opened the Twitter app on my iPhone and gasped with delight.  4 lovely icons populated the navigation bar.

Almost immediately I knew what they had done.  But I had to be sure.

I booted up my laptop and went straight to my first visit of the #NewTwitter.  A bigger gasp this time.  Everything was different.  Everything was lighter.  Everything was more sane than it had felt in a long time.

I’m not going to go on about the actual changes.  If you use Twitter, you’ve already seen/used the new interface.  If you’re not a Tweethead, then I’m not sure why you’re reading this in the first place.

What is by far more important to me is the WHY of this redesign.  I had an inkling, but checked the Twitter blog* for confirmation.  And I was correct. 

The redesign was due to careful consideration of how users were, uhhh, USING the service.  Through @ symbols to connect with people and hashtags (#) to discuss topics. So what did those smart cookies over at Twitter do?  They reiterated the entire site to make a better service for their consumer base REFLECTING how they were already using the site.  These design decisions were not based on what they THOUGHT users MIGHT want in their Tweet world.  They were based on evidence.  Cold.  Hard.  Facts.

This is the business model of the technology age: iteration and reiteration (hat tip to Steve Jobs).  Putting a beta version out there, seeing how it fares, and course correcting.  Testing A vs B vs C.  Streamlining instead of bloating your product with unnecessary crap.  Integrating rather than adding on like those parasites that live off their mothership shark for life.

My favorite part of the new design?  So glad you asked.  The “Compose New Tweet” icon—that perfectly lovely feather pen which shows those designers are thinking about the details.  It says “We’re a classic now. We’re here to stay. Maybe you should, too. And write something while you’re at it. Just keep it 140 characters or less.”  And yes, that quote is exactly 140 characters.

*Twitter must have edited this blog post.  When I read it the day of the launch they discussed the topics above, as well as making it easier for new users to adapt.  The post also discussed that they expected some backlash on the new interface, but that they would educate the population using this site.