UI Overhaul Face-off: Twitter vs. Facebook

These days, Facebook and Twitter look like new chefs blushing in red as they await the reactions of their users after serving their most recent dishes, at least in terms of the services they offer in the techlandia. Their dishes, are not literally food, but the two giant's most recent attempts at revising the user interface (UI) of their websites, which most of their official statements declare are designed to give the best user experience to their users, in terms of feel and ease of use. Again.

But which of the two came up with the better food, er... UI or user interface revamp?

To the uninitiated, UI or user interface refers to the design or arrangement of elements in a particular space (i.e., web space) with which an online user may interact and "how an application program or a Web site invites interaction and responds to it." In layman's term, UI is the layout or arrangement of elements in a webpage.

First in line is Facebook, which introduced its much-discussed and now most debated new profile page called Timeline. This UI overhaul is an attempt to give users bigger view of what else but - timeline or history of all data that a user indicated on his online space via the Facebook universe. Many complained, including me, that the new UI looks crammed, chaotic and set to give the most dizzying experience and headache to everyone for tiring the eyes when you scroll left and right, up and down.

All these are made at the expense of seeing your page that sports the bigger you in terms of bigger pictures, and bigger status fonts, and more. You may check my Facebook Timelined page to see how this whole Timeline works.

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging website meanwhile, is also touted to release its major overhaul of its interface soon.

It is a revamp with no fancy name or identifier to brand this change. The amazing thing here is how the new Twitter UI was simplified (not to complicate because sometimes some simplifications do), but to give a better experience.  The four elements of the new interface are Home, Connect, Discover and Me. The arrangement of the elements are not eye-straining and the links, including how the elements would appear when clicked, are easy to learn.

Here is an online video from Twitter to check what they are rolling out soon:

Based on most online discussions and Facebook comments about these two recent developments, Twitter appears to be the runaway winner.

On my scorecard: its 93% for Twitter. 83% for Facebook.