Some quick thoughts on #newtwitter

If you are into Twitter-world you should have noticed that Twitter was steadily rolling out a new redesign of its whole layout on twitter.com. #Newtwitter was hilghly anticipated by many (me included). So, yesterday I finally saw the “Pssst… the new version of Twitter is here. Try it now!” and of course I clicked it instantly.

And I saw that:

Here are some key-points on this reformat:

  • It has a post-web feel, bringing lots of new ideas from twitter for iPad interface. It’s quite well done. Actually it gives an “app” feeling like Gmail. The new site is incredibly responsive, congrats to Ryan Sarver and the rest of the platform team.
  • Fortunately, the hovercards are replaced with the useful right hand sidebar.
  • Another key-feature is the embedded media elements which are handy and seem sort of natural with the rest of the layout. They’re clearly trying to do the right thing and strike the proper balance between creating a natural, engaging experience for Twitter users. For me, that means that I will never see a lame advertisement again above an yfrog/twitpic picture. That’s a win.
  • The keyboard shortcuts (Sift + ?) seem well chosen. If only I could remember all these…
  • It doesn’t leave the 1024/768 crowd behind, but they get a lot more content per square pixel. It’s pretty crowded. Also I noticed that the whole “action” is displaced on the left of the monitor.
  • A great feature is the autocomplete of @accounts when you type a new twitt. No more wrong spelling at your mentions.
  • The tweet’s source (via web, echofon etc) does still show in the detail and single page view, but its absence in the stream view is odd.

Concluding, #newtwitter is an awesome improvement from the last one, but even though I use the Twitter web site,  still prefer a variety of device and desktop clients instead (Seesmic Desktop, Tweetdeck, Echofon etc.). There’s not much in the redesign that’s going to draw me away from an app, but it’s ok.

P.S.: A cool fact. The #newtwitter is designed based on golden ratio. [pic]

Tags: newtwitter review thought