Twitter unveils new-look two-pane website to improve user engagement 

 
 
 
Wednesday, September 15 2010 by Catherine Ferguson

Twitter has undergone a website maintenance overhaul to improve user engagement and simplify usability.

Site stickiness is also a major aim of the social media site's revamp and refurbishment, which will also make it easier for users to check out and share videos and photos.

The website's main page display has been changed, so that it now shows content spread across two panels rather than one.

On one side, tweets are displayed in much the same way as they have been since the site's launch - appearing to stick faithfully to the tenet: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

However, a second panel will now be dedicated to displaying profiles, including photos and videos, which Twitter chiefs say have been integrated into the website itself after agreements were reached with a number of other social media sites, such as YouTube and Flickr.

The new format is not available yet, however, and will be rolled out over the next few weeks. This will give internet marketing consultants as well as normal users time to prepare for the change and adapt accordingly.

Other changes include making it easier to see related tweet streams and conversations, as well as user biography information and tweet histories.

But it is Twitter's decision to make it easier to share video and photo content that has got all the critics talking, where previously multimedia items were often just displayed as links through to other websites - undoubtedly a problem with regards to encouraging users to stay on the site long enough to click through to display ads and other website promotions.

As you would expect, Twitter chief executive and co-founder Evan Williams was pretty excited too when he spoke to the BBC about the website design revamp.

"We are so excited about the new one because it has everything the old one had but it is faster, easier to get more information and we think it is just an overall better experience," he explained.

Living Streams "Improving clients' profitability through better use of the internet".

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/09/new_improved_twittercom.html