Twitter Launches New Landing Page

Twitter's Newest Landing Page

Twitter recently launched a redesign of their landing page. Primarily, it’s focus is to attract new users with clear messaging and a more prominent sign up form. The new design features some enhancements for the user, however, it also introduces many UI conflicts between the various pages. I think Twitter is experiencing an identity crisis!

The new landing page features an icy blue appearance with a sign up form on the right (very Facebook-esque). As you move between various screens, however, the look and feel changes. This can be disorienting to the user. The logo is different on various pages, the buttons are styled variously, and even the interactions behave differently.

Twitter's Sign in Screen

I walked through the process of logging in to demonstrate the various identities and interactions happening throughout Twitter. Upon entering an incorrect password from the landing page, I was redirected to the sign in screen shown above. You’ll notice the branding has now changed to their infamous shade of Twitter blue and the black header that is present in the “new” Twitter is visible. They did, however, carry over the yellow color used for the sign up button on the landing page to the link located in the upper right. This caught my attention so I decided to click on “Join Today” to see what I was presented with and I got this…

Twitter's Sign Up Screen

Yet another version of their logo and the good ‘ol Twitter clouds. Aside from the branding inconsistencies there are also deviations in the interface and interactions. The field labels appear differently in all of the screen captures above: the landing page utilizes the label within the field, the sign in screen displays them above the field, and the sign up screen aligns them to the left of the field. Twitter has also introduced a new interaction for the field labels that appear within the text boxes on the home page. If you give it a try, you’ll notice the labels begin to disappear as you type. However, if you log in to Twitter, the field labels currently disappear upon clicking into the field.

Overall, Twitter made a few improvements but now they just need to pull it together. My advice… stop trying to match Facebook and focus on the experience!