Today, Twitter released a new version of their app with a simplified design. You can read more about that at fly.twitter.com. Basically, Twitter tried to unify the appearance across platforms, and whittled the experience down to four hubs: Home, Connect, Discover, and Me. This in itself is not a bad idea, but the rushed execution is pretty clear when you start using the new Twitter for iPhone app.

Features That Are Gone

To start, Twitter has gotten rid of the swipe gesture present in previous versions of the app, for no apparent reason. In keeping with the idea of simplification, Twitter may have believed that removing the swipe gesture to reveal a set of action buttons would make the app more approachable to new users. Unless they have data to back up accidental swipes and confusion from these users, there is no reason to remove a niche but powerful feature. In an interview from 2009, Loren Brichter says:

Now, I think you can split gestures into two categories. One is of the pull-down-to-refresh kind. These are gestures that are discoverable and explanatory. The other kind of gestures are like tapping-the-status-bar-to-scroll-to-the-top, or swipe-to-delete (or swipe-to-reply in Tweetie). These gestures you won’t discover on your own except by accident. These are not discoverable, and they are not explanatory.

This second class of gestures can exist (in my opinion) because they are not the only way to accomplish a goal. In the case of tapping the status bar, users already know how to scroll to the top manually. It’s slower, but it’s possible. In the case of swipe to delete, users already know they can tap on a message and then tap the trash button. So knowing the gesture isn’t necessary.

So when you’re inventing new gestures, it’s important to think about whether the gesture is required to use the app. If it’s the only way to accomplish a goal, you better be sure it’s discoverable and explanatory without needing to read a manual. If it’s the other kind of gesture, go nuts!

Knowing that swiping across a tweet reveals quick actions isn’t necessary to use Twitter, as you can always tap on the tweet to go into detail view and use the buttons there. But while the previous version of the app appealed to both pros and new users alike, the new version only works for casual Twitter users, leaving the pros angry and looking for a better app.

The same argument can be made for the swipe gesture on the back button, which would take you to back to the timeline regardless of how “deep” you were. The new version does away with this handy gesture, on the argument that you can just tap on a tab in the tab bar at the bottom of the screen. The problem is that this tab bar is not visible when you’re on a webpage. So, for any link in your timeline, you will need 2 taps to get to the webpage, and 2 taps again to get back to your timeline.

In addition, you cannot send a link to your Instapaper or Read It Later queue from the timeline or tweet detail view. You must tap the link, choose the action button, and then select “Read Later.” Thus, for each link in your timeline, you need 4 taps to send the page to your queue and 2 additional taps to get back to the timeline. With the swipe gesture in Twitter 3.x, this common action would take half as many taps.

Some people are complaining that switching accounts is too arduous a process, or that Direct Messages are hidden behind the Me tab. Luckily, there are gestures for quicker access.

Visual Inconsistencies

Once you start using the new app, you get the feeling that it was rushed, thanks to a ton of visual inconsistencies. Here are just five of these blunders.

During a transition, the Done button is shifted to the right. After the transition finishes, it snaps into place.

The Edit and Done buttons aren’t aligned with each other, and the + button is too close to the right. The entire bottom toolbar should be shifted to the left.

In addition to shrinking the text to minuscule sizes, the profile picture is not aligned. Source: @flyosity

Egregious alignment error when viewing a conversation with a favorite tweet.

The swipe to delete ugliness that existed ever since Tweetie 2.0 is still not fixed. Source: @gruber

For some more well-articulated criticism, read Twitter For iPhone Takes A Step Back.