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Twitter using "consistent user experience" as an excuse to crack down on developers.

From a Twitter employee's post on new developer guidelines:

Still, our user research shows that consumers continue to be confused by the different ways that a fractured landscape of third-party Twitter clients display tweets and let users interact with core Twitter functions. For example, people get confused by websites or clients that display tweets in a way that doesn't follow our design guidelines, or when services put their own verbs on tweets instead of the ones used on Twitter.

*A Consistent User Experience*
Twitter is a network, and its network effects are driven by users seeing and contributing to the network's conversations. We need to ensure users can interact with Twitter the same way everywhere.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. I think Twitter is making a move to control their entire ecosystem, which is fine, except they're doing this in the name of "a consistent user experience." Do it in the name of privacy or a valid business model, but don't blame UX for this.

I'm a huge proponent of good user experience, as most of you know. But it's worth pointing out that a consistent user experience is extremely important within an application. It is less important (still important, but less so) between applications.

Twitter apps, like all apps that use an API, should be a democracy. I applaud Twitter for doing user research on this stuff. But if users are confused, or if an app is crap, users can decide not to use it any more. Twitter shouldn't make that decision for their users.

Making developers use the same nomenclature (like Retweet and Mention) is fine. But enforcing the design and display of tweets to look a certain way will stifle innovation in Twitter apps, and pretty soon everything will look the same -- and be boring.

Also note that their API terms state that you may not "replicate, frame, or mirror the Twitter website or its design."

So which is it? Does it all have to look the same, or are developers not allowed to make tweets look like they do on the Twitter website?