Twitter’s Redesign Rewards Newcomers And Leavers, Ignores Everybody Else

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 7:06 am

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Twitter have redesigned their home page. Take a look.

Or have they? If you were already logged in to the network, it just looked the same as it always did. You have to be logged out to see the change. Which means that Twitter’s very pleasant, streaming trends page is only a feature for people who aren’t connected to the service – for example, absolute newcomers, which is clearly who this move is targeted at.

For the rest of us, to access this cool new page we need to log off. There doesn’t appear to be any other way to reach it.

This is broken.

Because once you’ve logged in, you’re stuck with the same old boring, feature-free page you always had. Talk about a bait and switch.

Sure, the intro page wouldn’t work for your actual Twitter stream because it takes up too much of the screen, but it would have been nice to see a little continuation here. After all, the core userbase – you know, the 20-25 million you should really be trying to keep happy – aren’t likely to be too impressed if all you’ve done is change the cover of the book for everybody else.

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John Fredrickson
Is this a joke? I don't get it :/

Twitter redesigns their landing page to work better for new users and you criticize it because it doesn't do anything to enhance the experience of existing users? It has nothing to do with existing users.

It's one thing to complain that they aren't doing enough for existing users, but to argue that an enhancement for new users is "ignoring" existing users is just silly.

There is no indication that they won't continue this redesign into more sections of the site. Don't be angry that they released the landing page redesign before releasing the rest. It would make no sense to hold that back while waiting for the rest of the improvements to the entire site to be finished.

Look at progress and rejoice. Perhaps complain at the speed of progress, but not the iterative direction of it when there is a larger whole that needs to be worked towards.
.-= John Fredrickson´s last blog ..Twimg: Twitter's First Twitter App? =-.

Sheamus
John

I'm not "angry". :D There was quite a lot of hype before the redesign and when it happened, but it only impacts people who visit the site for the first time. Once you've signed up, once you've joined, all that cool stuff that you see with the new look is no longer available to you... until you sign out again. That isn't progress - it's slightly backward.

As I've said, it's a great step for Twitter to make the platform clearer to newcomers, and there's no argument from me there. What doesn't work is that those same newcomers - and everybody else - don't get that same Twitter 2.0 feel and functionality when they actually become part of the cog.

As is increasingly common with Twitter, they tend to make these largely superficial/unnecessary changes when far more pressing features and fixes are needed, including something as basic and overdue as a simple RT button on Twitter.com. Amongst dozens of other issues.

Cheers for your comment,
Sheamus

Levi Montgomery
It could be argued that they needed to do something for the absolute newcomers to give them some tiny idea what to do next. I distinctly recall the feeling when I first joined Twitter. I felt like a blind man at a party of the deaf. They were all speaking sign language, and I was listening for voices.

There needs to be a much more intuitive way to spin the first webs of your network, and maybe this will help.

PS: Who ever looks at Twitter anyway, once they've installed the client of their choice?
.-= Levi Montgomery´s last blog ..So Here I Go Again, Blogging About Twitter =-.

Sheamus
Indeed - Twitter.com's share isn't much more than 20 per cent. That's something they may or may not care about, but while this change could boost the sign-up rate, it won't necessarily do a lot for their much-publicised drop-off rate.

To reiterate, this is a smart move from Twitter, but it only really effects absolute newcomers, and only then until they've actually opened an account! :)

Donagh Mc Sweeney
Ya i totally missed it until I saw your post to be honest and it's is pretty much irrelevant to any existing member I would agree.

But maybe that's the point, maybe they didn't want to ruffle any feathers with existing members in order to see how the reaction to the new design goes down. Getting people to see how something looks and feels, while not really impacting them might be their way of preparing people for change.

In terms of the overall layout and functionality of Twitter, it has to change. In order to for them to make some money, new features in promenant areas are going to have to be introduced so redesign is inevitable. They are only making peanuts compared to what they could be. Expect paid for search results like Google's sponsored ads to pop up over time in your stream page.

Donagh Mc Sweeney
Well as every IT pro knows the landing page is probably the most important aspect of every website. You need to grab the attention of the user and tell them what you have to offer before they bounce.

The old design was by no means bad, but it did have it's failures such as those comments that used be on the bottom(did anyone read them).

With the emphasis of the landing page now on letting people 'search' and discovering what Twitter is about themselves rather than getting them immediately signed up I think they are moving in the right direction. More inviting!

The old tag line of "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages....." has been outdated for a while and the new one reflect where Twitter has moved in the last year "Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world".

As for the actual design, I certainly agree that they should have continued the design throughout, BUT maybe it's something that is coming in stages. You can't just totally change the design over night. There would be uproar from that 20-25 million community, eg: Facebook. Keep an eye out over the coming weeks/months and I bet changes will be introduced. When Bebo changed their logo from the oroginal to the new one it was done with about 5 different logos, each logo had a sutile change from the last and before people knew it there was a completly new logo.

As for the black in the design, really don't know what to make of that! I can't even make up my mind as to whether I like it or not!

Sheamus
I don't disagree that it's a smart move from Twitter in terms of capturing the attention of new visitors, but it's completely redundant for everybody else. So many people this morning weren't aware of the change because they were already logged in. And then, once they knew, it didn't matter to them anyway!

As you say Twitter likely will phase in some new stuff in the weeks/months to come, but it's weird policy that they keep making exterior changes while ignoring the core product.

Uproar only tends to come if you make a massive gaff. If Twitter had prettied up the stream page we'd perhaps have suggested it was a superficial adjustment (at least, *I* would), but if they just threw in a few proactive bones (like a re-tweet button, say, or filters) I can't see how anybody could really have had anything negative to say about it. Well, apart from a few mentals. :)

Maddie Grant
You just said it Shea: "once they knew, it didn’t matter to them anyway". Those of us who actually use Twitter actively don't need the "pretty streaming trends" because a lot of us already monitor trends with one of the 800 million apps we can use, or don't because we have no interest in trends. I think this is perfect, designing for those who need it.