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What will Twitters redesign mean for its users?

Posted: 15 Sep 2010 07:45 AM PDT

An exercise at redesign is a very tricky thing to do. You always end up with the risk of displeasing a certain section of loyalists who might prefer the older layout. Most redesigns are good when they serve a purpose and usually the purpose has to be based on future plans. So when Twitter introduced ReTweet on its layout, people did not like that it did not allow them to customized the ReTweet.

Initially not many used this feature but slowly I see a lot of people using the retweet feature from Twitter instead of the usual prefix of 'RT @username'.

What has Twitter planned?

The new features will include showing Retweets, Mentions, Lists, Saved Searches above the timeline and not on the right.
On the right will be shown related information. Also it has tied up with Flickr, TwitPic, Vimeo, YouTube and Kiva which allows you to look up images and streaming videos on Twitter website.
I am guessing Twitter wants to make it's website as user-friendly as possible without the need for any Twitter apps like hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

How will it affect the users?

I am not prolific on Twitter. My Twitter account ( @adityakane ) does not have thousands of followers and I do not follow hundreds of accounts either. I do share links, images, quote almost daily. Personally I use TweetDeck and sometimes HootSuite but that is mainly to schedule messages. I schedule tweets only when I have too many links to share on the same subject. I try to spread them across different days.

Mostly I use Twitter from its website and not a Desktop app. I do not have a smart phone so those apps are out of the question too. So I think if I can view videos and images shared on Twitter on the homepage itself I would be very happy.

New users on Twitter are notorious for not being retained. Some estimates I read were, that 40% new sign up do not stay on Twitter for more than a few days. That will change as all the things that you discovered over time will be laid out in front of you on Twitter.com

What happens to Twitter Apps?

This will be an interesting development. I think this will wipe out all Twitter desktop apps. Why would any user on Twitter will use TweetDeck or HootSuite if he/she can use Twitter.com website just as effectively.

This development might mean the end of Twitter Apps unless they come up with some radically new ways to use Twitter.

Here is a video from Twitter about its new re-design.

So what do your think about Twitter's new design changes? Will it wipe out Twitter Apps or will prolific Twitter users still stick to the apps. Do drop in your comments with views and opinions.

Link: New Twitter

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