2019 Twitter Redesign

Overview

2019 Twitter Redesign refers to social media platform Twitter's new design, which was rolled out in July of 2019. The redesign includes a rearrangement of some of the site's features, such as replacing the "Moments" tab with "Explore," making the left side of the screen more prominent, and simplifying the Twitter inbox page. The redesign was met with backlash from users of the platform, as it failed to address long-running concerns and requests.

Background

On January 22nd, 2019, Twitter advertised that "a new Twitter was coming"^[1] and that users could opt in to the redesign for a trial period to experience the new design and offer feedback (shown below).

In response, Twitter users like @robotoskunk^[2] and @michaelhoffman^[3] voiced long-standing requests for the site, such as an edit button and stricter controls on hate speech (shown below).

Developments

Over the following several months, Twitter rolled out the new feature to more and more users.^[4][5] On July 15th, 2019, Twitter rolled officially implemented the new design.^[6] Summarizing the redesign in Tech Crunch, writer Sarah Perez wrote:

The upgraded experience simplifies navigation with a new -- and fairly large -- left-hand sidebar that directs you to all of Twitter’s key sections, including Notifications, Direct Messages, Explore, Bookmarks, Lists and more. The site also features an expanded, more inbox-like Direct Messages screen where you can view and respond to conversations in one place; plus easy profile switching, support for more themes, advanced search and other features.

She also pointed out the most striking difference is the site's homepage (shown below).

Speaking to Wired,^[7] Jesar Shah, the redesign's project lead, said, “People use Twitter a lot on desktop to look for information, and it tends to be around their interests. So we’re trying to make that easier for people, and leverage these new spaces we’ve created on the site and compliment their primary browsing experience.”

Twitter users responded to the redesign with frustration and distaste. User @violinpony^[7] tweeted, "Old #twitterdesign looked more clean & way better" (shown below, left). User @J_MZed^[8] tweeted a diagram of issues they took with the redesign, gaining over 130 retweets and 400 likes (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References