Twitter is rolling out a new website and app design, complete with fresh font, higher-contrast colors, and less “visual clutter.”
At its core, the revamp—rolling out now to iOS, Android, and desktop users—is meant to boost accessibility. “While it might feel weird at first, these updates make us more accessible, unique, and focused on you and what you’re talking about,” the Twitter Design team wrote in a Wednesday thread.
The most visible alteration is Chirp, Twitter’s first proprietary typeface, developed with Swiss firm Grilli Type Foundry and unveiled early this year. Moving forward, all Western-language text now aligns left, making it easier to read as you scroll. Non-Western languages remain unchanged.
“Chirp strikes a balance between messy and sharp to amplify the fun and irreverence of a tweet,” Donna Lamar, global executive creative director for Twitter, wrote in a January blog announcement. “But [it] can also carry the weight of seriousness when needed.” Tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong even uncovered a fun Easter egg: Type [CHIRPBIRDICON] in the new interface to transform your text into the Twitter logo.
Not everyone is a fan, though. CNET reported a number of users complaining of headaches and urging Twitter to let folks revert the font, saying that “it’s incredibly difficult for me to read with, and it physically hurts to look at it.” A company spokesperson told the news site that “while it does take people a little time to get used to it, overall they like the change.”
You may also notice higher-contrast buttons and colors, and fewer “Twitter blues”—an attempt to draw more attention to user content like photos and videos, the design team said, promising additional color palettes are “coming soon.”
The whole site should appear cleaner, too, since developers removed gray backgrounds and “unnecessary” divider lines, and increased space to make text easier to read. “This is only the start of more visual updates as Twitter becomes more centered on you and what you have to say,” according to the thread.
