Tweetdeck - it used to be better
October 19th, 2008 3
After reading Paul Walsh’s post about why he loves Tweetdeck (play nice kiddies, he’s paying for my freelance lifestyle at the moment) I started thinking about the new UI that was recently added in version 0.19b. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great App - and Adobe should give this guy some credit for choosing Air on which to build the best Twitter desktop App I’ve ever used.
But it’s this bloody new UI added in the new version. Apparently, it’s “Overall new cleaner” - well, yeah, I guess. Trouble is it’s at the cost of usability. Fair enough use icons to denote functions in an App, but not when the icons used have no accepted meanings. Checkout a screenshot I lifted from the offical site of an early build - the main functions can be accessed by text buttons. No fuss, no mess. Want to Tweet? No worries, the button is right there…
But these have been replaced with fussy icons that don’t really tell me what they do at all.
Ok, I can see why this has been done, as using text buttons for all the new functionality that’s in the most recent version probably wouldn’t fit in the current configuration. But I say give us the choice, I don’t really know what these icons mean, so it’s a learning curve. Maybe I’m lazy, but the new “cleaner” Interface has made this awesome app (for me at least) harder to use.
Alright, rant over, I’m feeling like enough of t***t now. Bottom line - This is still a great app, and if you’re a Twitter user you’ll wonder how you ever coped without it.
3 Comments (+0 in the moderation queue).
#1 On October 20th, 2008 at 1:14 am Paul Lloyd said...
Great post Jon! I agree with your assessment here, but (not having used this product) I have a few questions about the UI. There seems be enough space to the right of these icons to allow for some of the less obvious tasks to have labels – is this area always free, or have they kept this task area small as the interface can be reduced in width? Are there any tooltips on hovering over these icons?
Also, why are there so many new buttons in the new release (up from 4 to 8). Again, without having used the application, it seems to me that it’s starting to suffer from feature creep. I like how they have made the font size bigger, but I would hope they would simplify the app rather than add further complexity.
#2 On October 20th, 2008 at 9:10 am Jon Roobottom said...
@Paul - yes, there’s tool tips.. The extra features are ‘replies’, ‘Direct Messages’, ‘Twitscoop’ & ’12seconds’ - the last two being feeds for other sites that extend the functionality of Twitter.
The text size (I think) is the same - the second screen shot is just cropped a little closer.
#3 On October 20th, 2008 at 11:03 am Andrew said...
I agree that the icons are not obvious; although, even after reading the tooltips I don’t know what some are for. I really only use the one, the tweet icon. Aside from that the default layout shows me all I need.