Interface | Interaction | Design

Twitter recently launched their redesign to behave more like an application and less like a web page. They kept the simple timeline interface and widened the right pane that contains profile information. They also created a slide out detail pane that shows more when you select a particular tweet. From the original announcement:

On the site, you’ll see the familiar timeline, yet underneath each Tweet is a handful of information, deeper context and even embedded media. Simply click on an individual Tweet and a details pane slides out on the right and reveals this content.

This new pane shows a wide variety of info about the selected tweet. If you are looking at a tweet that is a response to something, it actually tracks what it was in response to and shows them both in the pane. If the tweet has a link to media, such as an image or video, the right pane displays it. If the tweet features a hashtag (#design for instance) the pane will show other recent posts featuring that tag. It will even guess keywords from the tweet and give related content. It's really quite robust and powerful, without being intrusive.

Here are a few before and after examples of the interface. Finding the befores was a bit of a challenge, so I found those (courtesy of BJ McCray) first and took a look at those user's current pages.

Old:

New:

Old:

New:

All in all, they have managed an effective evolution. It can be a challenge to overhaul a tool that is used by 160 million vocal users. Particularly one that is known for its simplicity. Adding features has to be handled very carefully. I think they've succeeded.

I love their little recursive video they did for the launch too. Pretty cool...