BW Communities

Who Moved My Twitter

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Imagine what you'd feel like if you were to come home one evening and find your wife had changed the position of every piece of furniture in the house. Sensible as women are, she would probably find a layout that works way better than it was doing. But even knowing that, you can't help feeling you're in someone else's house… That's exactly how seasoned Twitter users are feeling about the overhaul to the microblogging site. Things that used to be on the right are on the other side, everything has become renamed and it all looks overly neat and tidy — and different. So, not surprisingly, they're disoriented and annoyed. Inevitably, some things are not as functional in the same way as they used to be, and that causes much irritation, especially for iPhone users.  Me, I don't mind a bit, really. The neatness is appealing and everything looks well-fitted. If you haven't yet got what users are calling NewNew Twitter, because it's the second big redesign since one that took place about a year ago, you will. Download the Twitter app on the iPhone or Android and you can see it immediately. One reason I'm not worked up over the changes is because I don't see how Twitter has a choice but to tweak, or even completely reinvent. Here are the reasons that led up to the new design. Cutting Through The Noise To anyone new to Twitter, it's a confusing place. Who's saying what? What are these fragments of conversation? What am I supposed to do here? How come everyone else seems to be comfortable and knows exactly what going on? It's like being in a huge party where you don't know anyone and everyone's speaking in foreign languages. With the new design, things are definitely clearer because you don't have to flail around wildly to find your way about. The buttons or tabs are the explanation. You don't have to wonder at the @ and # signs. Click into the tab and it will be evident. You no longer have to wonder about tweets not making standalone sense. Click on the Open button and you can see conversations and understand the context. Well, mostly. This in itself clears much of the stage fright newbies on Twitter must feel. The Home, Connect, Discover and Me tabs don't need any explanation. On an information network where the biggest enemy has been the poor signal-to-noise ratio, I think simplicity was much called for. Consistent Experiences For years the features and functionality of Twitter has come from users and third-party developers. So, everyone's experience of Twitter has been different depending on what they use. But if Twitter wants to take charge, it's got to be able to control these and give users a consistent look and feel. Now, the look is the same and the buttons are to be found in the same place across different platforms if you use the Twitter site or official Twitter app. Savvy users have of course stuck to the apps they used or quickly found alternatives such as Tweetbot. But from Twitter's point of view, consistency is even more important when you realize that we're no longer limited to one device per person and could be using different ones to connect to Twitter. The Competition's Doing It With all the big networks fighting tooth and nail to get and keep the biggest user bases, Twitter can't very well remain what it has been for years. It too needs to add new users. And that means reinventing to make them comfortable. What Twitter hopes to achieve with its current redesign is to build up a user base as big as that of other social networks. While many may be miffed at the New New Twitter today they would also be impatient if Twitter were to lag behind looking like it never tried to move with the times. Although they don't plan to change so much or so often as to cause complexity, they do want to improve. To Complete The Picture  Twitter's founders certainly didn't think they would be dealing with photos, videos, songs and audio files becoming staple diet on their network. But of course you can't separate media from anything shared online today. One of the nicest and most attractive things about the new design is that you can see photos and videos along with tweets just by clicking to do so.   The Discovery tab has packages of trending stories - particularly nice if you've just joined Twitter and don't know what to do. Serendipity is meant to come to the rescue here and hopefully we'll see less of "Just trying to figure out Twitter" first-time statuses. Many think the look with photos and videos rather Facebookish but I remember Facebook being accused of being Twitterish when it put in the status update long ago. Time To Do Business Finally, one big reason for changes to Twitter is that the network needs to have a strong business model. The new design means that it now has customizable brand page options for companies that can use large headers and make other changes to attract customers. Well, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ all have functionality for businesses, and it's really only been Twitter that lagged behind. All said and done, despite the furniture you may unexpectedly bump into, we'll find ourselves getting accustomed to New New Twitter - and we may as well, for there are more changes in the offing. <em style="float: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; height: 18px; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; word-spacing: 1px; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;">Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professional<br style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><em style="float: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; height: 18px; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; word-spacing: 1px; font-style: italic; font-family: Arial; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;">Contact her at mala at pobox dot com and @malabhargava on Twitter