His points are valid, that in Twitter’s new design the core function of social network is overshadowed by the emerging core function of search (clearly dependent on the successful social network use and content provision). But what is “The Mark” that Twitter want’s to hit and what is “The Mark” Mr. Ritu want’s them to hit?

My response is that Twitter is clearly a classic 80/20 Rule (or quite possibly a 98/2 Rule) where all of Twitter’s content is provided by less than 10% of the users. Twitter needed to build up the network and the site initially was a content collector.

Currently most users who add content, Tweet Creators, to Twitter are using web and mobile apps like Tweetie, TweetDeck, et. al. So they are not really ever seeing or using the Twitter interface.

Moving the interface design more towards the emerging core of Search opens up Twitter to a more popular use by the other 80-90% of users, Tweet Searchers. Here is where Twitter needs to grow, needs to provide value, and needs to discover it’s ultimate ROI. It’s the new Twitter that will use our public posts to provide real-time information to the other 80% of the users consuming the Tweets we make.

I think they are hitting “The Mark” they need to hit, but how does the 20% social app, content creators feel about the expanded use of “their experience”, or more so, the diverted attention they are getting?

Luke W.'s deep dive book on web form design tradeoffs and best practices

Just finished reading through Luke W.’s great resource on web form design, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks.

It’s a great overview, deep dive, and a must read for any UX/Web DesignerFront End Developer who’s interested in serving the user and building in quality efficiencies into a web form experience.

I loved the thoroughness, questions, and “Best Practices” takeaways at the end of each chapter. Allowing the reader to walk through the pros and cons and end up with a usable checklist to consider with most design tradeoffs.

A great primer I use with my UX Design class is his quick overview of top, left, right aligned form labels Web Application Form Design UIE article. And a presentation overview for a deeper view.

A good read and one I hope has seeped into my general UX design practices – even if I have to grab it off the shelf here and there [Bonus is the PDF digital version from Rosenfield - great resources and model!]

WindowShop Screenshot

http://www.windowshop.com/

It’s been released for over a month, but an interesting move into a more immersive online shopping experience. Amazon WindowShop has a nice browsing feel and the access to quick-loading video and voice-over reading of book descriptions certainly adds a deeper multimedia experience.

It is not as fun of an experience as PicLens/Cool Iris (which I love to play with) – http://www.cooliris.com/ – Google Images search that flick pans, zoom-scrolls, and auto uploads on the fly, but similar on the surface-level intent.

But, the drawback for me is the need to view the Popular Releases. This is essentially the Amazon homepage brought to life in a way – which has its merit – but that is the same page in which I only hone in to see the Search field and move on to my own interests, not Amazon’s promotions.

The amazing value to Amazon is its Long Tail access. i can dig deep into what I’m interested in and find virtually anything I want in my own particular media niche. This current Beta version of Amazon WindowShop looses the primary value I find in Amazon.

Until it lets me select a genre, or specific search to view, rate the things I’m interested in and shows me similar type products, I won’t be using Amazon WindowShop for more than an interesting jaunt into an interface experience (which isn’t a totally bad thing – just a very low frequency of use).

It’s a good idea in a Beta version, we’ll see how the transform and what they roll out in next updates.