Improvising Twitlonger.com By Kamiyah (Kimmy) Design for Interactivity, Year 2 Republic Polytechnic Ps: Please view this file in slideshow mode, since there are certain animations for each slide. Thank you.

What is Twitlonger.com? It is a website that is ‘associated’ with Twitter.com Because Twitter.com has a tweet limit of 140 characters, Twitlonger.com was created to cater to twitter users who wants to tweet longer than 140 characters. Twitlonger.com ’s tagline, ‘For when you talk too much for twitter’ clearly shows that it was created for tweeting tweets longer than 140 characters.

PART 1: Understanding and Evaluating the current interface of Twitlonger.com

Twitlonger.com -Log In Page- This is how the Log In Page looks like. Plain and simple, isnt it? The constant things kept throughout the whole website, is the HEADER, the BANNER, and the FOOTER. Header Banner Footer

Twitlonger.com -Log In Page- Hidden button. Click it and it will lead the user back to this same page. Header. Remains the same in every page of the website. Link. Leads user to Twitlonger’s Twitter Page. Acts as a log in button. Users MUST have a Twitter Account in order to log in. Links that lead users to another page. Links are the same as those from Header. Click and button will change to ‘ Like’ with a tick symbol. Clickable links that lead users to other pages.

Twitlonger.com -Log In Page- Once the ‘Like’ button is clicked, the button becomes inactive, and then this will pop up and link users to their Facebook accounts.

Twitlonger.com -Home Page- This is the Home Page, where users would mainly be at when they use this website. It has the same design/look as the log in page, with the header, banner and footer in the same place.

Twitlonger.com -Home Page- Buttons. ‘write’ refreshes the page, while ‘my account’ leads user to their account page. Link that leads user to their Twitter Page. Hover over it and a pop up will appear. Leads user back to Log In Page. Number automatically counting the number of characters in the tweet. Button colour changes to a darker blue once hover over. Leads user to another page where the posted tweet is shown. A profile/account bar is added to the page. This will be in every page in the website when the user is logged in.

Twitlonger.com -Tweet Posted Page- This is the page when a tweet is posted. The look/design of the page is very different as compared to the log in page and the home page.

Twitlonger.com -Tweet Posted Page- Hidden button. Leads user back to home page. User’s profile photo, Name with Twitter username, and details of the post. Nothing can be clicked in this section. Shows the number of ‘retweets’ and ‘likes’ related to this post. Space for Advertisements Section where the posted tweet is shown. Clickable links. Colour change to black once hovered over.

Twitlonger.com -Error Page- Hidden button. Leads user back to home page. Space for Advertisements Section for Error disclaimer. ‘Home’ leads user back to Home Page.

Twitlonger.com -‘my account’ Page- Leads user to another page where their past posts are shown Leads user to another page where they can retrieve their old posts. Nothing can be clicked in this section. Details separated with bullet points.

Twitlonger.com -Posts from Account Page- Navigations to other pages of this part of the website. Page title. Tweet posted. Details of post (date and day) Leads user to Tweet Posted Page. Leads user to Delete Post Page.

Twitlonger.com -Retrieve Old Posts Page- Nothing can be clicked in this section. Details separated with bullet points.

Twitlonger.com -Delete Post Page- Check box. Button colour changes to a darker blue once hover over. Leads user back to Post from Account Page. ‘Message deleted’ be be shown. Details of chosen post to be deleted.

After going through the website, I realized that there isn’t any problem with the navigations and the website is easy to understand because of the simple English language used. However, I find that the website looks too simple and perhaps, boring. As far as I know, Twitter is a fun website/application where users can tweet about anything. So, I feel that Twitlonger doesn’t show that fun factor about Twitter. I realized that Twitlonger doesn’t do categorizing that well. For example, the ‘Posts from Account Page’ where each post are separated by lines. I find that really ugly. And I don’t understand why the ‘home page’ and the ‘tweet posted’ page looks totally different. It gives me a feeling that Twitlonger doesn’t have an identity.

Survey Qns 1 Gender: Finding out the gender of the user helps me to have a better understanding of which gender uses twitlonger more, and it seemed that there are more girls using twitlonger, based on this result. If female users are the majority, then perhaps the theme of the website could be slightly ‘girly’ or more suited to the female gender.

Survey Qns 2 Age: Finding out the age of the user helps me to have a better understanding of which age group uses twitlonger more, and it seemed that majority of the users are of ages 18 to 25. With the age group in mind, perhaps the language of the website could be considered to help them have better understanding. A complicated website wouldn’t be easy for a young person to use.

Survey Qns 3 When you first used Twitlonger.com, did you face any problems? Finding out the problems faced by the user helps me to have a better understanding of what problems Twitlonger will have, or what problems users would encounter when they use Twitlonger.com. With that in mind, the interface of the website can be improved and can be better if such problems were reduced.

Survey Qns 4 How easy is it to navigate twitlonger.com? Finding out the opinions/experience of navigating around the page by the user helps me to have a better understanding as to whether users have a problem using the website throught he navigations. With that in mind, the navigation interface of the website can be improved and it can be better if such problems were reduced.

Survey Qns 5 How visually appealing is twitlonger.com? Finding out the opinions of the website’s design and look by the user helps me to have a better understanding as to whether the website is visually appealing and interesting to keep the users using the website. With that in mind, the design interface of the website can be improved and it can be better if the design helps to give the website the ‘fun’ factor of Twitter.

Survey Qns 6 What changes do you think would improve the website? Finding out what the users wants to see changes of in the website would help me re-design the webpage with their needs in mind. With that in mind, the whole interface of the website can be improved and it can be better if such problems were reduced.

From the survey results, I found out that users, like me, don’t really face any problem while using the website. Many felt that the navigations of the website can be improved the most. Some felt that the website looked alright, though one said it was visually unappealing. So with these users’ comments in mind, I will then ideate a few ideas that solve the problems faced by them.

Ideation 1 Users can change the background to pictures or different colours. Logout and user profile buttons at the top instead of under the banner. Archives added to allow user quick access to their past posts, instead of having to go to ‘account’ then ‘manage past posts’. Acts as a prompt to let usrrs know that their tweet has been posted. To view the tweet, they will have to click ‘here’.

Ideation 2 Users can change the background to pictures or different colours. Logout and user profile buttons at the top instead of under the banner. Archives added to allow user quick access to their past posts, instead of having to go to ‘account’ then ‘manage past posts’. Inspired by the word ‘write’, a notepad represents the field where users would type their tweet in before posting it.

Ideation 3 Users can change the background to pictures or different colours. Logout, settings and user profile buttons at the top instead of under the banner. A talking human with the speaker to emphasis on Twitlonger.com’s tagline, ‘for when you TALK too much for twitter’. Acts as a prompt to let usrrs know that their tweet has been posted. To view the tweet, they will have to click ‘view in page’.