Twitter's newest profile revamp prompts comparisons to Facebook, but the changes make it more usable. Here's what to expect.

Kristin Burnham, Senior Editor, InformationWeek.com

April 8, 2014

3 Min Read

Twitter users: Your profile just got a heavy dose of Facebook.

Beginning Tuesday, Twitter will begin migrating users to a new profile design that it tested back in February. The new look features an extended cover photo with navigation tabs below it to view your tweets, photos, videos, accounts you follow, your followers, and lists. Your profile picture moves to a new left-hand column; below it are your bio, location, suggested followers, photos, and trending topics.

Along with the new design, Twitter will launch three new ways for you and others to interact with tweets. For example, your tweets that receive more engagement -- such as more favorites, retweets, and replies -- will appear in slightly larger type "so your best content is easy to find," Twitter said in a blog post.

{image 1}

[Facebook has suffered some strikeouts during its 10 years. Read more: 10 Famous Facebook Flops.]

Two other additions include pinned tweets, which let you choose one of your posts to tack to the top of your page, and filtered tweets, which let you choose which timeline to view when looking at other profiles. You can pick from a regular tweet view, tweets with photos/videos, or tweets and replies, Twitter said.

Twitter's latest changes are bound to draw comparisons to Facebook, and for good reason: The new profile design borrows heavily from the social network -- from its large cover photo, navigation bar placement, and new location of your profile photo and information, to the multiple streams that display filtered content and the new pinned content feature.

While some users may lament a more Facebook-like design, the changes do improve the desktop version of Twitter. Viewing a user's content by photos and videos is handy, the larger typeface of select tweets makes it easier to scan for important posts, and the overall profile design -- as similar to Facebook as it may be -- feels more familiar.

While Twitter green-lit many features from its February test, some didn't make the cut. Most notably, Twitter did away with a new tweet display that reorganized your content based on engagement rather than the chronology of your posts. It also ditched the Pinterest-esque display of your tweets in your personal stream -- both of which initially drew criticism.

twitterredesign2.png

The new design does, however, keep the Pinterest card design it tested when viewing another user's photos/videos, following, and followers feeds. In the photos/videos view, you can reply to a post, retweet it, favorite it, and share, embed, or report an image by clicking the icons below each one.

Twitter will gradually roll out the new design to users beginning Tuesday. New members who sign up for a Twitter account will automatically receive the new profile, the company said.

Trying to meet today's business technology needs with yesterday's IT organizational structure is like driving a Model T at the Indy 500. Time for a reset. Read our Transformative CIOs Organize For Success report today. (Free registration required.)

About the Author(s)

Kristin Burnham

Senior Editor, InformationWeek.com

Kristin Burnham currently serves as InformationWeek.com's Senior Editor, covering social media, social business, IT leadership and IT careers. Prior to joining InformationWeek in July 2013, she served in a number of roles at CIO magazine and CIO.com, most recently as senior writer. Kristin's writing has earned an ASBPE Gold Award in 2010 for her Facebook coverage and a Min Editorial and Design Award in 2011 for "Single Online Article." She is a graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Never Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.

You May Also Like


More Insights