Twitter for iPad’s terrible Direct Message UI

Twitter, inc. purchased Tweetie, which was considered to be the best looking Twitter application for the iPhone.

Unfortunately, they haven’t done much good with their purchase. The official Twitter iPhone client added the universally-loathed trending topic bar, and then removed it after loud public outcry.

The UI for the official Twitter iPad client is a nightmare. It has improved a little since its initial release, but it still reeks of an overdeveloped attempt at being clever and innovative.

Whereas Tweetie broke new ground with ideas such as “Pull To Refresh” (which now seems so natural as to be obvious, and has been often copied), Twitter for iPad’s UI contributions are much more of a warning for what others should not do. (Have you seen anyone copy anything from Twitter for iPad’s UI? I haven’t.)

Here’s just one example. This is what it looks like when you try to send a Direct Message (DM) to someone:

What’s with all of that empty space? It’s completely wasted.¹

I can’t see all of the message that I have typed.

And — most astoundingly — there is no character count.

If you know the least little bit of about Twitter, you know that messages are limited to 140 characters. That includes DMs.²

There’s no character count. So how do you know if your message is too long? Exactly.

Some times you can spend so much time trying to be creative that you forget the basics.

Yet another reason why I use Twitterrific as my default client. I Only have the official Twitter iPad client installed for push notifications.

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