Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey as a platform for sharing short messages. Over the years, it evolved from a novelty to a significant source of news and communication, introducing key features like retweeting, verified accounts, and photo/video previews. The platform underwent numerous aesthetic and functional updates since its inception, culminating in a major redesign in 2014 that received mixed reactions from users.

1. TWITTER
EVOLUTION
Aditya Hiremath IXD

4. THE ORIGINS OF TWITTER DATE BACK TO
EARLY 2006, WHEN NYU STUDENT JACK
DORSEY SHARED A NEW ONLINE
COMMUNICATION IDEA WITH SOME OF
HIS COWORKERS AT ODEO, A
PODCASTING COMPANY. DORSEY'S IDEA
WAS A PLATFORM THAT ALLOWED USERS
TO SHARE SHORT MESSAGES WITH
GROUPS OF PEOPLE, SIMILAR TO
SENDING TEXT MESSAGES.
The Origins

5. .
Jack Dorsey set up the first ever
Twitter profile and sent out the first
Tweet saying: “just set up my twttr”

6. 2008
This is an example from July
2008, and it reveals that very
little evolution has taken
place. There’s a language
selector at the top of the
page, the “With Others /
Previous” tabs have gone
from the top of the timeline,
and the site is now displaying
a much more prominent
promo for new signups when
the visitor is not logged in.

7. FROM NOVELTY TO NEWS
This is the phase when Twitter
became a useful source of news and
information. Many businesses soon
began sending tweets about
promotions and events, and political
campaigns as hey realised twitter is a
powerful communication tool.

8. 2009
Here you can see this
updated page in March 2009,
on Stephen Fry’s Twitter
profile.
• Colour scheme.
• Retweeting
• Verified Accounts
• Reference posts -> Tweets
• Hashtags

9. 2011
In latter 2010 Twitter’s default
profile pic changed from the
bird to the now familiar egg,
and that’s reflected in the
mini-avatars of the followed
users in the sidebar.
A lot of major functional
updates and enhancements
hit the site in late 2010, but
aesthetic progress on the
profile page had been
minimal. That was about to
change…

10. THE AESTHETIC CHANGE
The 2011 update is seen above on
Microsoft’s profile page. The
sidebar is much wider, the bio is
now much more prominently
displayed, some of the functions
have been shifted to more
intuitive positions, and there’s now
an unmissable Follow button right
at the epicenter of a visitor’s
attention. I really enjoyed using
this layout.

11. 2012
Around 2012, Twitter completed a switch
in the positions of its timeline and
sidebar, so that the sidebar appeared on
the left, as opposed to its original home
on the right. The user stats and bio were
completely separated from the timeline
and sidebar areas, and sat on their own
panel at the top of the page.

12. 2013
Twitter’s mobile apps and website will now
surface photo and videos much easier than
before thanks to in-line previews.

13. 2013
The next big update was rolled out
from September 2012, and saw the
profile page gaining a header
picture for the first time. As usual,
the rollout & change took a while,
and there were still some non-
header pages remaining in
December. This update was
aesthetically grim, but
operationally a great experience
especially for news readers.
• Introduced GIF’s

14. 2014
On 12th February 2014, word began to
circulate of a new, completely alien, far more
modern and infinitely more visually-striking
profile page design for Twitter. At the time still
only on test (but clearly a case of “we are
definitely doing this”), the new page was part
of a positively humungous site redesign. Early
opinion was very much love or hate, and that
remained the case through the introduction
phase.

15. 2015
On 12th February 2014, word began to
circulate of a new, completely alien, far more
modern and infinitely more visually-striking
profile page design for Twitter. At the time still
only on test (but clearly a case of “we are
definitely doing this”), the new page was part
of a positively humungous site redesign. Early
opinion was very much love or hate, and that
remained the case through the introduction
phase.
• Poll Questions