Social-media companies present interface changes, such as Twitter’s new Chirp font, as ways to reduce “friction” for the user.Source: Twitter
Last Wednesday, in the early afternoon, Twitter users who opened the Web site or the smartphone app discovered a new font across the platform’s interface. Called Chirp, it was more organic and less geometric than its predecessor, with more elaborate flourishes, including a curvy lowercase “G” reminiscent of handwriting on a chalkboard. Other elements of Twitter’s design had changed, too, including the coloring of the all-important follow button: before, the button darkened if you followed someone; now it darkened if you didn’t. These might seem like minor changes, but for regular Twitter users the effect was not subtle. Disgruntled tweets flooded in: the font’s denser appearance made it harder to make out clearly, especially on the small screen of a mobile device; the follow-button switcheroo made it easy to accidentally unfollow people you meant to follow. When I opened the app, I felt like someone had rearranged the furniture in my living room while I was asleep. My muscle memory no longer applied. I’d lost spatial awareness in my most frequented digital space.
That sense of sudden digital disorientation has become increasingly familiar as of late. Social-media and streaming apps constantly change aspects of their “user experience,” which includes digital-interface design, to push users toward new features. Instagram is perhaps...
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