Image: Mashable composite. Twitter, iStockphoto , retrorocket
The rumors and feature teases are true: New Twitter profiles are here, with a brand-new, yet oddly familiar, look. The new design is rolling out slowly, unless you're a celebrity or a new user. And it may represent a real turning point.
Like many people who live on Twitter, I don't look at my own profile page very often. I spend most of my time on the Twitter.com homepage to see tweets from all the accounts I follow, and my Notifications page to track replies and mentions of my handle. I last managed my Twitter profile ages ago.
However, I look at other users' profile pages fairly often. It's where I learn about who they are through their profile picture and their brief description of themselves, which may include details like job, location and a link for more information. In other words, profile pages are important, especially for brands, celebrities and new users.
To understand how these new profiles are built and what they mean for your Twitter experience, we created a new Twitter account. This is your walk-through.
The changes
Yes, the new Twitter profile does look somewhat like Facebook's profile page layout, but the overarching theme here appears to be 'big.' All the elements on the page are big, from the Twitter profile picture to the full-width header image - and, of course, tweets. They get larger depending on their popularity. For new accounts, though, everything is big, since all your tweets are equally popular (or unpopular) since you have no followers or retweets in the beginning. Despite this apparent pituitary issue, the rapid growth of all these elements actually adds more white space to the design, making the profile page, perhaps, somewhat less text-heavy and overwhelming for new users.
Getting started
There's nothing remarkable about the initial setup of the new Twitter. Once you have your user name (good luck finding one that isn't already taken), Twitter walks you through the process of building your timeline. Profile building is saved for the end. In the two screens above, Twitter is, on the left, offering me a list of recommended Twitter profiles to follow. The screen on the right serves up notables grouped by categories like Music and Sports. This is where you find your celebrities, some of whom already have the new profile. The next screen, not shown here, encourages you to add people from your email contacts.
Building the new you
The first step in building your new Twitter profile screen is really this one. It's where you add the profile picture and description of yourself. A couple of interesting notes about this screen: You can, as before, skip it and leave your photo and description blank. In the old Twitter profile, blank profile pics were represented as eggs - a nod to, I guess, your unhatched Twitter bird. Notice that the default avatar is now a silhouette and actually looks remarkably like Facebook's no-photo avatar.
Considering how different the new profile pages are, I'm surprised Twitter isn't offering more guidance on image size, shape, etc. The actual profile pic is much larger than this preview and also in a different spot. My guess is that Twitter has yet to update the account set-up process.
Almost there
The next screen introduces you to the new Twitter profile page. As you can see, the profile pic is much larger than in current profiles. To complete the profile look, though, you need to add a header image. This is not the same as the background or theme for your entire account. Twitter still offers a collection of preset themes and the ability to upload your own. I suspect, though, that backgrounds built for the old profiles may not work with this new design.
To add a profile header image (which will take up that blue space behind your profile picture - just like on Facebook and Google+), you click on the space and upload a photo (1,500 pixels wide, max). Twitter lets you scale and move it around to position it properly. While many Twitter users build their existing profile pics and backgrounds to work together creatively, they'll have to redo them for the new profiles because the positioning is different.
At this point, you can see a lot of big changes. Twitter names, handles, descriptions, links and the pic are all on the far left (like Facebook). However, they still stand out because there's nothing below them. The menu of Tweets, Following, Followers, Favorites and Lists are all gone. As soon as you post a photo or video, that little checkerboard square of media elements will reappear below your profile picture and description.
If you're visiting someone else's new Twitter profile page, you'll see the familiar 'Tweet to' box for that account.
'Who to Follow' and 'Trends' have moved to the lower right. I wish Twitter would reverse those two boxes. Trends are far more important than following new people. As it is, I worry that, in their new position, those two boxes will be missed altogether.
Both good and bad
Twitter's 'Following' list is almost unrecognizable. Instead of an actual list, we get a Pinterest-like board of cards for everyone you're following. This allows Twitter to add more detail to each account listing (profile pic, header image, description, 'Follow' link and an 'Other actions' menu). Personally, I prefer the simple list.
Twitter's 'Edit Profile' screen is also completely new and much, much improved from previous versions. I defy anyone to get confused here.
Self-promotion
One of the new Twitter profile's most exciting features is the ability to pin a tweet. Now you can click on the little More menu in every tweet (those three dots), and select 'Pin to your profile page' (see the image on the above left). Now everyone will see that tweet first (above right). It's a smart move by Twitter, but adding some scheduling capabilities might be wise, since I bet people will forget that they've pinned old Tweets to the top of their page.
The big picture
Overall, Twitter's new profile pages are better-looking than their predecessors, but the reliance on large pictures and really large fonts is a bit overwhelming. 'Big' doesn't necessarily mean 'inviting.' I think Twitter's efforts to make the service more accessible to everyone are laudable, but this new look may turn off some Twitter pros who prefer their social media lean and mean. On the other hand, most expert users live not only outside Twitter profiles, but off of Twitter.com entirely. They spend their Twitter days on services like Twitter's own TweetDeck and third-party options like Hootsuite and SocialFlow.
Only time will tell if Twitter's more open face attracts the new users Twitter so desperately needs. What do you think?
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