UPDATED: Sometimes, You Get What You Need: Twitter Improves UI on Follower/Following Pages
Twitter has announced some changes to their follower and following pages interface design and functions.
Now, when web users click to see lists of the people they follow or who follow them, they will see more information than just avatars and usernames. The new, improved pages contain full names, locations, most recent tweets, a one-click follow button, and a drop-down menu of possible actions, including @replies, DMs, and blocking. UPDATE: After a commenter pointed out that scanning for non-following users just became more difficult with the new interface, we would like to point out that there's an app for that. You're welcome. We love you, too.
Without question, this feature is welcome and even overdue. We would actually have liked to see bios included in the available information. And we aren't yet seeing any changes to the official Twitter mobile site. But, as the saying goes, you can't always get what you want.
Here's what the options look like for users you follow:
And here's what they look like for users following you:
Also, you can browse through other users' followers/following pages and exercise about the same list of functions:
Finally, users can toggle back and forth between a simple avatar/username list and the new, expanded list. The drop-down menu and follow buttons remain:
On our wishlist of Twitter improvements, getting more follower information was quite high, and this improvement does a bit to meet that need.
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
I agree, it would be great to also see bios in this new update. Maybe sometime soon.
It´s great news; many deck apps had already included them and Twitter is catching up. Thanks for the info.
I'm not one to complain about changes. I like the newness. But, I have to say I miss scanning who I follow and being able to quickly tell who follows me back. You now have to click to see who you can/can't direct message.
This makes it more difficult to notice when someone unfollows you. Do you think twitter is intentionally deemphasizing the quitter effect?
@Mike Dude, you're totally right. Scanning for people to unfollow just got a lot more complicated.
As with everything else in our digital lives, there's an app for that: http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/
Hmm, let me check that on my twit account. Looks cool though :)
Re: Twitter Karma. Great app. There's also Friend or Follow http://friendorfollow.com - deserves a mention! Has a cute bunny!
Also http://doesfollow.com - just if you quickly want to see who's following you back.
Now if only they would include useful bio information about people in the email that informs you that you've gained a new follower...
I like the new changes, but earlier you had to hover on user names in order to see their bio, and I was expecting them to update this and let the bios available with no need for hovering or so, but they decided to just remove the bio, which really pissed me off.
I also wanted them to give us the ability to sort people who followed us by the date they started following us, their names, etc. And also give us the ability to search for people within the list.
I like the extra functions, but the most recent tweets seems a little pointless to me, why not include the Bio instead - This would tell you much more about the person than there last tweet.
Doesn't seem very necessary to show the latest tweet, should be replaced with their bio instead.