Twitter Tests Cleaner Web Client Design With More Prominent Logo And Tweet Composer

Twitter is testing a new website design, which opts for a lighter, flat design that seems at least partly inspired by its shift to similar design trends on mobile. The screens below were sent in by Boris Bošiak, founder of Czech startup Reservio, who is apparently part of a small pool of users being seeded with the new design.

As you can see from the screenshots, this isn’t a drastic change in the basic layout of the page; rather, each element gets a new visual look, dropping the gradient shading that’s present on the existing version, and opting for light colors instead of dark on elements like the top navigation bar.

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Alone, those changes add up to a cleaner, more modern look for the site, but there are a few other significant changes, too. That includes the new prominent placement of the Twitter logo, which also occupies a prime seat in the middle of the navigation bar in the current design, but which is just slightly visible via different shading (it’s essentially darker grey on dark grey). There’s also a new compose window at the top of the main Twitter feed, which harkens back to earlier versions of the UI, and supplements the compose button in the top right corner of the navigation bar, which remains in place.

One other noteworthy feature is the change to the Direct Messages icon, which now looks like a combination between a letter and a chat bubble. This could reflect some experimental changes it’s making to the service in its mobile apps that make it behave more like a dedicated messaging client.

Like its experiments in mobile, this desktop UI could be a test that never sees wide release, but it’s actually very attractive so here’s hoping it does. We’ve contacted Twitter to find out if this is something they plan to launch more broadly, and when, and will update if we learn more.