Twitter Gets A Familiar New Look

If you haven't noticed yet, your Twitter profile page has received a makeover.

About a month ago, Twitter announced plans to roll out a new profile page that would make profile pages represent their owner's personality even more.  If you think about it,  the old Twitter profile page was pretty bland and generic.  However, their new page is eye-catching, but it does resemble something.  Twitter perhaps received some inspiration from Facebook because the two profile pages look pretty similar now.  They both have a profile picture nested in the top left corner along with a large cover photo that stretches across the entire top of the screen.  Below all of this rests content.

The new profile page

For Twitter, this now includes best tweets, pinned tweets, and filtered tweets.  Let's check them out!

Best Tweets

Notice the size difference.  The one on the bottom is part of the new best tweet feature

If you take a look at your new profile page, you might notice that certain tweets are larger than others.    This is because they have been labeled as a best tweet.  According to Twitter, the tweets with a lot of engagement will appear larger on your profile page, which makes it easier to find the most important or interesting content.

Pinned Tweets

They sit at the top of your profile page

Have a tweet you are super proud of?  Or perhaps a celebrity interaction?  You can now pin tweets at the top of your profile page so that others can quickly see them.  Ideally, you will want to pin a typical tweet so that new followers will know what you are all about.

Filtered Tweets

Twitter understands the importance of photos and videos.  They are visually stimulating and our eyes automatically fall on pictures over text.  If you want to just look at tweets that have pictures or video, you can now filter tweets on your timeline.  Other options include view all tweets and view tweets with replies.

All of this is a lot to take in.  If you don't want to switch right away, Twitter is not pushing the switch just yet.  You can demo these new features, but they won't stick until you tell Twitter that you are ready.  With that said, all of these new features improve an already amazing web experience.  I think I'm finished talking, so if you haven't tried out the new Twitter, visit your profile page and try it out!

Project Planning: Task Lists, Deliverables, Etc.

My graduate school program recently interviewed Kyle Schultz, the Creative Director at Dedo Inc. Dedo is a creative technology company that specializes in creating interactive installations to heighten the experience of a place or product.  Dedo is a small team, but they work with some pretty large companies.  Their deadlines can be very strict at times, but they produce these great projects time and time again.  

How do they do it? The answer is that they plan well.

Create Team Members

Like with any team, players are assigned certain roles.  For Dedo, a team may include graphic designers, developers, strategists, analyzers, and directors.  While the team is working on different parts of the project in their own specialties, the team is constantly in communication with each other.  Constant communication is key in producing a cohesive and realistic idea.

Task Lists

During the interview, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Dedo uses tasks lists for their projects.  I’ve been doing the same thing for a project I’ve been working on!  In my Interactive Media program at Elon University, students are required to produce a capstone project in order to graduate.  This project is supposed to be a representation of everything we have learned through Interactive Media.  My advisor  recommended that we use task lists in order to get ourselves on track.  These task lists can be created however you want, but each task is usually assigned a deadline. You can divide your work into stages or by category, but the main idea with task lists is that you do not want to be working on every aspect of the project at once - such as working on the design, development, and content all at once. 

Example Task List

Deliverables 

Another important aspect of task lists is the constant creation of deliverables.  Kyle explained how his team completes a lot of paper prototypes, wireframes, and eventually some high fidelity mockups through InvisionApp.  I was really stoked because my capstone advisor has encouraged us to do the same. I just recently completed all of the above for my capstone.

Creating deliverables is a great way to stay on track, but it also produces something that you can hand over to your client.  It is better to have feedback earlier than later in case you need to change something. Producing deliverables is just a great practice to pick up.

Paper Prototype

Write

Kyle also encouraged us to provide some written feedback after each task is completed.  For example, if a graphic designer just completed a logo mockup, he or she will complete a write up explaining if the logo worked and how they might improve it.  Kyle stressed the ability to talk about your own work.

Free Task List Template

If you want a nice task list template, here is the one I am using: Task List Template - Created by David Holland.  Custom it to your project.

Front End Development

Encourage your team to use task lists if they don't use them.  You can also use them if you are working solo.  As a front end developer, a majority of your work comes near the end of the project because people hand you content, but make sure to keep in touch with your team members; tell them if something isn't possible to make.  Make yourself produce deliverables, even if it is just for you. Make your own paper prototypes and wireframes.  Get your hands on as much of the project as possible.  Create deadlines and don’t let yourself get too behind.  I guarantee you will produce a better project in the end.