Overview
Twitter is a social media platform users use to post, spread and share content.
Goal
Our team was inspired to replace the current retweet function on Twitter to increase engagement from multiple accounts.
Design team
Jacqueline Ma, Vincent Alojado, Thatcher Snyder
Research
As an avid Twitter user for many years, I was thrilled to design the concept of a new function that will possibly increase engagement on Twitter. One function my team and I decided to explore is the existing retweet button. Rather than taking in account of the time it takes for a retweet to process, my team and I wanted to explore further on how to reduce cognitive load- the mental processing power (used when interacting with a product) when it comes to retweeting from multiple accounts.
Some use Twitter to mindlessly tweet- funny memes, cute cat gifs, a child falling over etc. While others use it as a professional platform to voice information.
As someone who currently has 2 separate Twitter accounts-
Account A- I've had since high school
Account B- To network
I understand the separation between the accounts. I want to be able to smoothly tweet to both my accounts as I scroll through one single timeline.
The current Twitter retweet function is a 2 step process- Twitter users press the retweet symbol on a tweet which will then prompt a drop down of the following 2 options:
1. RETWEET
2. QUOTE TWEET
We wanted to figure out a way to reduce this process for when users ONLY want to retweet a tweet to a specific account.
With this proposition in mind, we were inspired to incorporate the haptic touch feature. Currently, Twitter has the haptic touch function inplace for when users want to create a new tweet. So, we thought to ourselves- why not take this function and adapt it to the retweet button as well?
Competitive analysis
To understand the benefits of the haptic touch replacing the current retweet function, we did competitive analysis with other social media platforms that had haptic touch features such as on Tumblr and Pinterest.
The haptic touch on these 2 platforms give users a smoother way to share content with the following actions: Long press → slide to targeted action/ account on one single timeline.
User interviews and user flow
As I worked along in a team with 2 other designers who are also big Twitter fans.....users**, we wanted to gain a bigger pool of opinions and thoughts aside from ours on the haptic touch idea.
I decided to reach out to several Twitter users I follow that I’ve personally seen use Twitter almost daily. Conducting these user interviews helped gather more interesting insights than we expected. We discovered some users enjoyed the current function because it reassures the content they’re sharing before it’s published, meanwhile others loved the idea of the quick action of the haptic touch. I’ve gathered some quotes I’ve gotten from conducting user research to show the different feedback of the haptic touch idea:
All illustrations by Blush (Figma plugin)
Problem statement + design hypothesis
The problem statement I came up with is:
"How may we maximize the viewing and retweeting of tweets on a single timeline from two accounts."
The simple urge to scroll through one single timeline and able to retweet two multiple accounts from the retweet button was our focus.
We wanted to make sure to keep the design consistent since the haptic touch already exists on Twitter for the create button.
User scenario + user flow
Olive has been scrolling through Twitter while laying on their couch trying to keep up to date with the inspiration for her group project for a design assignment. They want to retweet what they think is valuable information. With so many tweets tweeted moment to moment, they need a way to retweet as quickly as possible.
They want to make sure their fellow team members are able to see all the design inspiration retweets as well. Thank god for the haptic touch! Olive can simply hold down the retweet button on tweets they find helpful, and they will be easily able to amplify that information.
Wireframes
For our wireframes, I wanted to make sure the content on the Twitter feed matched up to the user's scenario.
Olive R, a designer is scrolling through their timeline and retweeting design inspo so her design followers/ teammates can easily see the retweets.
When designing the feed, I found inspiration through various illustrations and artists from Blush plugin on Figma. I wanted to make sure the feed had a variety of content based on the Olive's interest.
Frame by frame
Drop Down- menu to show users the current existing retweet format
Acct. 1- account overlay that pop up after haptic touch
Acct. 2-account overlay that emphasizes by enlarging the account the tweet will be rt-ed on
Before RT- Twitter timeline before retweet
RT-ed- Twitter timeline after retweet
All Illustrations by Blush (Figma plugin)
Prototype
Click here OR view below for the prototype
You will be scrolling through your feed as Olive.
As you land on your tweet of choice- in this case, it will be the pattern designs tweet from @myartyoureyes.
↓
You will haptic touch (long press) the retweet symbol which will then pop up your 2 separate Twitter accounts.
↓As you see your 2 Twitter accounts pop-up, you will SLIDE your thumb to the account with the blue background as this is the account dedicated to your design prospects.
↓Once account is selected, the rt symbol will turn green to confirm the retweet has been completed.