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A UX writing review of Threads
Meta’s Threads platform — Twitter’s newest rival — dropped yesterday. It’s early doors, but what can we already tell about their UX?
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I was excited to download Threads; not only has the meme content of Elon vs Zuck been good, but the answer to what could be the next Twitter seems to be potentially answered. Mastodon is as void of UX as is humanly possible; BlueSky is exclusive; Twitter itself is introducing tweet limitations and other bizarre product decisions.
First impressions
Threads is a great lesson in the importance of matching users’ expectations and existing mental models. Most users signed up specifically because they’re looking to an alternative to an already existing product, so they have an idea of how things work. Changing the basics of the behavior and design would be jarring.
It also shows the power of branding. Meta is currently treating Threads as an extension of Instagram accounts; upon sign up, users are encouraged to follow the same group of people they connect with on the ‘gram. While this is good for avoiding an empty state void of content, the decision was weird for a few reasons.
My Instagram and Twitter follows are inherently different. I only follow people on Instagram who I actually know in real life; it’s kind of like an extension of Facebook, letting…