Twitter Redesign & Content Neutrality
A design update that sacrifices firmness for UI modernism.
After many months of adjustments, Twitter’s new design has finally left the preparatory Alpha and Beta stages and has started rolling out as an official update for all iOS and Android users.
The updated interface features a more light design, with rounder profile icons and simplified symbols for Reply, Retweet, Likes and Message. Function wise, it introduces live counters for tweet stats, like the number of retweets or likes. Specifically on the iOS side, users will also have the option to open external links in Safari’s Read Mode by default.
User Experience
Being primarily a design update the UI changes do not make for a wholly different experience than what users are already used to. However, the redesigned icons for Retweet, Reply etc. will – according to Twitter – help newcomers make more sense of these options. Apparently, many new users mistook the old Reply button (represented by an arrow icon) for a “back” function.
On the technical side of things, the inclusion of live tweet stats counters and auto-Read-Mode for iOS users, are welcome additions, though many users have expressed concerns about the former feature, due to fears of increased data and battery usage.
Design Outcome
The update certainly makes Twitter feel more modern (though few could call the previous design outdated), but it forced Twitter to sacrifice an element that, for many users, is what differentiates it from all other Social Media – even more so than its 140-character limit.
For this update to happen, Twitter sacrificed its Content Neutrality.
Content Neutrality would be a Social Medium’s ability to support different sorts of media through its networks. For example, Instagram has a relatively low Content Neutrality, as it mainly targets groups like Social Figures, teenagers and photographers. On the contrary, Facebook would rank higher in Content Neutrality, for it supports much more sorts of media, not in terms of media types (pictures, texts, posts, videos), but of media content. Facebook can be used by virtually any type of user, either by a business man trying to target advertisements to a select audience, or by a family member seeking to connect with distant relatives. Instagram would fall short in most requests of such nature.
Many Social Media users – myself included – regard Twitter, as the most Content Neutral app in existence.
It is great for, following celebrity news, movie lists, sharing personal moments with your friends and family, or following and commenting on news sources or business figures. Its range of uses is virtually unlimited and, what’s more, it is also naturally easy to adjust it to the preferred content setting. Everything from gaming to environmental programmes can be traced and commented upon with ease.
Twitter’s design change is a step to a direction that greatly narrows the span of usage of the application in the long run.
The feel of the application already seems more unserious, if not teen-specific – similar to Instagram’s spirit, exhibited by a similar design refresh. But, unlike Instagram – which, by nature, has a narrower Content Span that wouldn’t be hurt by a redesign that displayed that span – Twitter has many user groups to lose, if not at least disappoint, with this update. It feels as if Twitter seeks to target more specific user groups that will greatly reduce its overall user base.
Twitter now feels more suited for purely Social uses, and everything else – like News, business etc – seems to be disregarded. Depending on the your kind of usage, you may or may not feel left out with this design change. Personally, I use the app for News reading, Financial quotes & stories and so on. For this sort of usage, the updated interface does not align with the content I consume. Previously, not just my preferred sort of content, by all sorts, felt more fit with the old design, as it was more neutral all-around. This is neutrality now gone.
Twitter has definitely taken a step to some direction; whichever that may be, the fact stands that it did take a step someway – the definition of breaking one’s neutrality.
In practice, it is up to the user’s tolerance whether they will find this update unfriendly to their use or the content they consume.
Anyhow, it is a questionable strategy to throw out a design that distances Twitter from its Content Neutrality and, for this, its user base will surely be altered, if not reduced.
PS
On a less criticising note, Night Mode looks more integrated to the app than before. Sleep (or tweet) tight!
