Twitter’s greatest UX problem: Who The Hell Is It Designed For?

(June 22, 2015), Buzzfeed broke information of Twitter’s so-known as undertaking Lightning, an extended-running attempt to recast the provider with a more effective, more engaging UX. as a substitute of the noise of a regular Twitter feed, the next model of Twitter’s app will characteristic, entrance-and-middle, a in moderation curated assortment of thematically grouped tweets. that is a stunning announcement for a couple causes.

For years, Twitter has battled itself over how much to adapt its product. Designers I’ve spoken to have mentioned dozens of discarded ideas for filtering the information feed, corresponding to scrubbers that would possibly best convey the most well-liked tweets for your feed, or timelines that could recreate the true-time response to a breaking-information adventure. For years, product managers and executives discarded all of these ideas in want of holding the product exactly the same for Twitter’s core energy users, who create lots of the content material on the platform and who wail every time even the tiniest change arrives on the platform.

With undertaking Lightning, Twitter is as a minimum acknowledging that the experience for brand spanking new customers or light users has been overpassed. indeed, you have to argue that on the grounds that a whole lot of millions of people have tried and then deserted Twitter—presumably due to its inscrutability—courting mild users should be Twitter’s first precedence. Getting it right boils down to some useless-easy UX that will not piss off energy users, however will give everybody else a very easy location to drop in on the service.

venture Lightning would work pretty simply: On the cellular app’s residence row, you’ll get a button, so they can name up various information events that persons are tweeting about. tap on any of these—say, something in regards to the Charleston shootings, or the NBA Finals—and you’ll be able to get now not a firehose of knowledge, however quite a filtered stack of tweets, every occupying a full-reveal, visually pushed card, a la Tinder. (hiya promotion opportunities!) you’ll be able to then be capable to swipe thru those cards. Crucially, they may all be filtered not with the aid of machines, but through a newsroom stuffed with residing, respiration, burrito-consuming journalists.

we’ll see if the product is any just right when it debuts within the coming months, but Twitter does have gifted designers in its organization, despite a historically dysfunctional option to product building.

extra importantly, it can be an indication that Twitter may well be realizing that its myopic dedication to a subset of users cannot proceed if the provider is to grow. for thus a few years, Twitter has been handiest in regards to the velocity and immediacy of the talk on it. You couldn’t hope to capture up, to any extent further than it is advisable hope to capture as much as a flash flood of data.

Now, with challenge Lightning, Twitter seems to be trying to slow the provider down into one thing easily digested and satisfying, whether you’ve been away for weeks, hours, or minutes. Twitter’s continued increase would possibly depend upon simply that perception. but is it too late to bring again all those customers who tried it out, bought misplaced of their feeds, and never came back?