it’s the little things
There seems to have been quite a bit of dissent online the last few days about what differentiates Tweetbot from any other Twitter client, other than beautiful UI chrome. Truly all the little things are what give the app its edge. I’ve had a better overall experience with Tweetbot than any client I’ve used for an extended period of time (Tweetie, Twitteriffic, Echofon, Tweetlogix, …), but I don’t feel like I can pinpoint all the reasons why.
Here are just a few that I can:
no stupid chat bubbles
Why do so many clients think that direct messages look better in chat bubbles? Like, I get it… it’s a private conversation. That doesn’t mean you have to make it ugly, not to mention, harder to read. In Tweetbot, DMs are visually consistent with every other list view in the app. They are also ordered with recent messages on top, so they bear stronger functional consistency as well.
“12 new posts”
Tweetbot is the first client I’ve checked out that puts the count of newly loaded tweets directly into the timeline upon refresh. I know how many tweets I have left to read, and can determine whether I have time to tackle them now or need to come back later. And it’s a good point of reference to see where my last refresh occurred right in the timeline.
retweeted by so-and-so
Many clients make the retweet visualization too easy to miss, and I’m left wondering why this tweet ended up in my timeline. Others try to do something clever, like overlay the retweeters icon, or something else that forces me to shield my eyes. Tweetbot’s solution is excellent. It’s both visually clear and unobtrusive.
customizable tab bar
The tab bar is customizable in a way that humans can manage. This post: The iPhone Tab Bar, has some points about the standard “More” functionality. Namely, it references research that suggests the feature confuses users, and they generally avoid it. There’s nothing confusing about customizing the tab bar in Tweetbot. Although the app does break some other “rules” for tab bar usage from the aforementioned post, the same rules tend to be broken by most good Twitter clients.
Good UI adds great value, and good UI is all about the details. Tweetbot is a great app, and despite much ado about it’s lack of differentiation, it’s worth a good hard look if you spend any significant length of time using Twitter on your iPhone.