Twitter Homepage Critique
Title: Twitter http://twitter.com/
We get many of our clients requesting "Twitter simplicity." The reality is that the homepage is not being used as a conversion tool- it's used as a gateway for their huge referral network. The Twitter homepage is simple, but there are still many areas for improvement. As a regular user of Twitter I appreciate their focus on good design. ZURB is a close-knit team of interaction designers and strategists that help companies design better (www.zurb.com).
Created by Bryan Zmijewski
Captured November 15, 2009 at 10:30AM
With the Notable FireFox Plugin
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1
The green button looks nice on this page, however a contrasting color would create a higher conversion on this page. Orange would be better. ZURB has been involved in tests with millions of users.
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2
It's a nice effect, but there are no other elements on the page that break the grid. How does breaking the grid help create awareness of a message or action?
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3
The dual tone background breaks up the solid background, but the intersecting lines don't lead the eye to a call to action.
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4
Alignment issue in Firefox.
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5
Interesting that the headline is "share and discover," but the small call to action is "Join the conversation". Is Twitter about conversations?
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6
The monochromatic blue design is pleasant on the eye, but a low contrast section like this is going to be very hard to read for most people.
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7
Neat. Implies that there are many more topics.
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8
The header is, "Share and discover," the sign-up is, "Join the Conversation," and the search is, "saying." Is Twitter a broadcast tool or communication tool?
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9
Newer, muted background colors help pop the logo.
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10
Nice arrangement of footer links. These links are not meant for the average user- font size is incredibly small. Surprisingly, GenY and Baby Boomers have something in common- they both want larger font sizes. Twitter could stand to attract these two user segments.
Comments on this Post
Bryan Zmijewski says,
Here is the same screenshot with grid lines. You can see the balance of elements and where items are aligned.
Bryan Zmijewski says,
A few more perspectives on the Twitter homepage redesign:
1. Here is the TechCrunch coverage of the redesign when it was launched in July of this year.
2. Here is Biz Stone's explanation of the homepage redesign on the Twitter blog.
Bryan Zmijewski says,
Here is a version of the Twitter homepage from early 2007 (from the Way Back Machine). A couple observations:
Douglas Bowman says,
Bryan Zmijewski says,
No worries Douglas, it's always a pleasure to analyze websites that get so many things right. I use these opportunities to stretch Notable and learn where we can improve the tool- I'm it's number one user and critic. :)
Expect to see more from Notable- we continue to roll out updates and tweaks on a weekly basis as we learn from feedback, usage, testing and analytics.
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