Specific blog posts can be credited with widespread influence of opinion. How can microblogging’s limited format accomplish the same thing?
In the early days, blogs were mostly misunderstood by establishment media as glorified diary entries, navel-gaving or just a fad. Eventually it was recognized that blogs were just the platform. Self-publishing itself was the real revolution, whether or not you called your website a “blog”, a magazine, a journal or whatever.
Making a Dent
90% of everything is still crud and blogs are no different. Yet the other 10% has been responsible for some game-changing ideas. In our own industry, there are writers and thinkers (ex: John Gruber, Mark Pilgrim, Jeff Croft, Jeremy Keith) who make a dent in the way we think about websites nearly every time they post.
Blogs got another credibility boost when businesses began using them strategically. Back in 2008, 37signals’ Jason Fried wrote “Why We Skip Photoshop”.
When designing a UI we usually go right from a quick paper sketch to HTML/CSS. We skip the static Photoshop mockup…None of this is to say we think Photoshop is bad or a waste of money or time, but for us we’ve found that going straight into HTML/CSS affords us the best iterative and creative experience.
He simply posted about his process—causing thousands of others to reevaluate their own processes. A discussion about mockups vs. prototypes broke out. Some had epiphanies about how to develop more efficiently. This post by Meagan Fisher a year later sealed it.
So the blog format—able to support traditional long-form essays, rich formatting and hyperlinks and references—has proven its ability to drive persuasive ideas.
Then Came Microblogging
As the lead microblogging tool, Twitter is now past the early stages of being dismissed (ahem). Journalists write about it breathlessly in situations like the American student’s arrest in Egypt or the Hudson River rescue ferry. But those examples are more about Twitter’s role in the incidents themselves rather than the substance of the tweets. Maybe that’s its strength.
But I still wonder about the idea of individual tweets causing important shifts in our thinking. Is that even reasonable to expect from a 140-character format?
“Why We Skip Photoshop” is what I consider a “reinforcer” post. Fried isn’t proposing a new technique. He’s reinforcing his own methods aloud. Many readers already developed their prototypes in the browser, but the reinforcing nature of Fried’s post made it official.
Twitter is good for reinforcer posts. This tweet from Jeffrey Zeldman is one of the very few I’ve seen quoted often:
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.
Surely most designers felt that already, maybe subconsciously. But it struck a chord and touched on a common problem. Instead of being a game-changer, it reinforced that above all, Design should be intertwined with Message, not sprinkled in the margins.
When I asked on Twitter about noteworthy tweets, @timothymeaney from arc90 responded with this by @codinghorror:
people > algorithms
And this by @timbray:
Perhaps it’s as simple as this: Slow conversations are better than fast ones.
Those are both memorable and obviously helped reinforce unspoken ideas that already lived somewhere in the public consciousness.
Conversation Starters
Last month, Elliot Jay Stocks tweeted this:
Honestly, I’m shocked that in 2010 I’m still coming across ‘web designers’ who can’t code their own designs. No excuse.
It led to a discussion on Twitter that meandered all over the place. Elliot then posted a much longer follow-up. It became clear no two people fully agreed about what makes a well-rounded Web Designer. It was a conversation that needed to happen and it started with < 140 characters.
These days it's a short distance between a moment of brainstorm and a bit of published text that might lead to sea change within an industry. What other specific tweets have caused a change in your thinking? Which ones can you recall word-for-word? Are there ways microblogging could be useful that aren’t being explored yet?
Or, is microblogging a good platform for conveying substantial ideas in the first place? Are we too busy compressing ideas rather than exploring them?
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11:32 am
I think tweets definitely work as Conversation Starters, that’s a great point.
I know this probably isn’t entirely related – but you asked: “What other specific tweets have caused a change in your thinking?”
Tweets change how we feel about people, they can give a website a voice, and a face. That’s one thing I do like. There’s only so much you can connect with somebody on their blog, and only so much personality that can come through. The actual things people tweet might not have the same impact each time that Elliot’s tweet had, but I think there’s something in being able to build a better picture of the people you are following.
4:25 am
“Tweets change how we feel about people” – absolutely agree on this one. Short tweets have changed my views on other people.
10:44 am
Interesting post Darren; I read it twice before commenting. I understand your point about tweets being conversation starters, and that slow conversations are often better than quick ones. Every once in a while a tweet gives me something to think about, but it’s usually not enough.
Zeldman’s tweet is a nice statement, but I’d equally expect to see it on a “designer quite of the day” website. We understood what he meant, but already have the background to do so. There’s no context or explanation. Fried’s example is more descriptive, but too long for a tweet. Perhaps a more Tumblr-like approach could be a good way?
I’m all for short-form ideas, but 140 chars is too little to get a thought-provoking idea across. For me, anyway. Honestly I use Twitter for link an RSS reader for links and to reply to other designers. I haven’t changed the way I think by reading something on Twitter.com.
Thanks for posting this…! I’m interested to see how the comments play out.
Also I too agree with the “Tweets change how we feel about people” – I follow and unfollow people based upon their most recent tweets. I’m sure people others do the same for me.