As Twitter works to further tighten the integration among its different apps — and shut down the third-party apps that don’t play by its rules — it’s become increasingly clear that the company has a clear, white and blue vision for the many faces of Twitter.
The company announced further changes to Tweetdeck on Wednesday, but this time it’s as much about the design of Tweetdeck as the actual functionality. The app looks brighter and fresher than the old edition, and while users always tend to dislike changes to apps like Tweetdeck, there didn’t seem to be many too many complaints about Wednesday’s changes.
Here’s a view of the new look for Tweetdeck:
And for a comparison to see how far Tweetdeck has come, here’s what it used to look like back in 2009:
Twitter has taken Tweetdeck and managed to totally refresh the design and look — over the past few months and updates, it’s de-emphasized the dark grey, heavy background color, added support for Twitter cards so you can expand tweets, and added a left-hand navigation that is more minimal than the buttons all over the old design.
Twitter acquired Tweetdeck back in 2011, and there was a concern that it might let the product through a lack of updates (and Twitter did kill the Tweetdeck for mobile versions, choosing to focus on the web experience instead). But February’s refresh, along with Wednesday’s re-design, show that Twitter is comitted to keeping Tweetdeck running.
In short, the updated Tweetdeck is looking more and more like Twitter.com, and the Twitter mobile apps, which share the bright colors and flat design aesthic that’s been dominating mobile design everywhere, from gaming apps to potentially the upcoming iOS design. Not only does Tweetdeck fit in with these changes, it puts Twitter in line with the major web companies like Apple — when it comes to design, at least.
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