Twitter Friday: Twitter Redesign – Did you Notice it?
Twitter just redesigned its homepage? You probably read about it but did you notice any changes? Probably not unless you don’t use Twitter at all.
The “revamped homepage” as some pundits put it can only be seen when you’re not logged in.
I already wondered what strange marketing tactic this is when StumbleUpon has done that, relaunching the site for outsiders but not the members. For weeks signed in Stumblers couldn’t see the new shiny homepage.
Twitter seems to commit the same mistake as StumbleUpon. Why is redesigning the frontpage or site just for casual visitors a problem? For at least two reasons.
Confusion
Just imagine a person who got used to a certain look which encounters a different design on a friend’s computer. Then s/he logs in just to discover that the design disappears. “What’s wrong” is the first question you can think of. Is Twitter broken? The user experience is quite poor now. You get two different site designs depending on whether you are a member or not. A new user might feel cheated getting a different look and feel instead of the one s/he expected to get judging from the homepage.
Negligence
Don’t you feel neglected when the new kid on the block gets preferential treatment while you, the loyal disciple gets the business as usual kind of reaction? This is exactly how Twitter made its users feel. The feeling might not surface but inside the gut you feel it. It feels strange to be treated like that. Why do they care less for those they should value the most, their members?
Now I might be a little picky. Let’s just assume it’s OK to redesign just for casual visitors. Still it feels weird.
The new Twitter homepage or landing page as some describe it looks like a search engine. The speculation about the ominous Twitter vs Google competition got reignited with this step. Let’s assume the that you are a person who have never heard of Twitter before. Now the person enters the Twitter landing page and sees a search engine. Then she enters its favorite keyword or topic and hits the “search” button. Now I just did that.
I entered “seo” and hit the search button. The first two results were in Spanish.
I speak some Spanish but it could have been German, Japanese or whatever else most people don’t speak. It’s just random. For the average Google user it’s just random crap results. So don’t promise if you can’t deliver. Don’t try to look like a search engine if you aren’t one. Most people will bounce off that landing page especially as most of the popular topics are cryptic for people new to Twitter.
What is:
- Follow Friday
- #itsuckswhen
- Cash for Clunkers
- TGIF
- #mlbtrades
These are currently the top 5 most popular topics on the Twitter homepage. At #6 there is Harry Potter, the only key phrase most people will know but I doubt that Harry Potter will make people join Twitter. Thus overall the new Twitter homepage alienates both existing users as well as potential ones.
Who the hell advises Twitter on SEO? They should be fired. I guess they don’t have a SEO advisor yet. The leaked documents showed just a “SEO?” ;-)
Tell me:
- Am I just too picky?
- Do you like the new Twitter design?
- Did you join Twitter after the redesign?
August 1st, 2009 at 2:06 am
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I made several of the same points on my own blog.
There’s an old saying: What you did to get me as a customer, you’ll have to work twice as hard to keep me as one.
What does this new homepage say about how Twitter feels about its longstanding members?
August 1st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I think Twitter missed the mark. I like the look, but they didn’t completely capitalize on the redesign. Twitter certainly has taken a different direction than originally intended, the “What are you doing?” meme no longer applies. They included the key elements that makes Twitter what it is, and if you know where to look they even explain what everything means, but they didn’t make it easy to find the explanations. Unless the new user knows to mouse over the tiny little clock icon, they might miss that those are real time trending topics. Same with the search field, the “See what people are saying about…” is there, but it’s small and easy to miss.
I don’t think current users care what the home page looks like really. You said it yourself, did anyone even notice? The home page is not for existing users other than to login. We’re not missing out on any new and exciting tools or features. In any case, most everyone had custom backgrounds so their twitter experience is what they make it. If Twitter redesigned the logged in pages and messed up everyone’s background alignment there would be a lot of upset people. There was no need to redesign the logged in pages at this point.
I don’t think it’s horrible, but they could have done a better job at unencrypting what everything means.
@bnrbranding
August 4th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Hey Anthony, great blog you have. I just stumbled a post of yours. Thank you for the feedback.
Hey Brent, maybe it’s not horrible but from a marketing point of view it’s nonsense. You are right that now they acknowledged Twitter is not about “What are you doing?” anymore. They don’t tell new visitors what it is instead. It’s just a cryptic nerdy type of page now. This way they won’t see much homepage induced growth. Just followed you, I’m @onreact_com on Twitter.
August 4th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hey Tad, I agree that the page is cryptic, which is where Twitter dropped the ball. If you look closely, they do tell you what Twitter is about. But you have to dig for it, it’s not obvious as soon as you see the page. Who ever came up with the concept was on the right track, but the implementation was crappy. It wouldn’t be hard to make some minor changes to the page to make it work.