Case study: how I would design Twitter’s Edit Button
By: Anik Ahmed
Tags: User Interface, Case Study, Design, Twitter, UX

So I hope everyone has a mask on because that might encourage twitter to add on an edit button. That being said, here’s a case study(case essay? redesign?) that shows how I’d implement the infamous ‘edit’ button on twitter.

Target Use Case:

Giving a chance for users to fix their tweets while retaining accountability.

Giving people the chance to fix a spelling error, misquoted tweet, or as a way to rectify false information, would be greatly beneficial to the platform as a whole.

Just think about the number of times you’ve been wrong or you’ve seen tweets that were wrong, a couple of outcomes may occur such as;

People begin to correct and pile onto the original poster to let them know that they’re wrong

and pile onto the original poster to let them know that they’re wrong A tweet becomes a thread — with the correct response (kinda like social proofing)

— with the correct response (kinda like social proofing) It gets deleted which holds 0 accountability to the poster.

Design Analysis:

Mockups for how the edit button would

The design process for me was to be as authentic and realistic as possible to what Twitter would do themselves.

Hence why I decided that instead of adding another action button to a tweet, it was implemented as another option similarly to ‘delete tweet’ and ‘pin to profile’.

Afterward, the tweet with being treated just like a regular retweet except at the bottom of tweet there will be a tag stating that the tweet is edited & it essentially is threaded to the original tweet.

This tag acts as a similar function to Twitter’s already existing tag regarding violations to their rules

An example of what kind of tag when you violate twitter’s rules.

The language I chose for the tag does a few things;

Holds the user accountable

Has notified any viewer that the tweet is NOT the original tweet & has been edited

the original tweet & has been edited Anytime someone comments or retweets the edited or original tweet the tag will appear and notify users that it has been edited.

The ability to gain optional knowledge on twitter’s guidelines

Langauge used for the tag

The feature would also hypothetically not allow the author to delete the original tweet unless they delete the edited version as well — effectively deleting the thread of tweets altogether. The edit function would only be able to be used once on one tweet. This way it’ll ‘foolproof’ any kind of misleading tweets that may be allowed.

A terrible recording of the mockup I made for the interaction

Final Thoughts

I believe having an edit button would be beneficial in twitter’s interactions as long as there is some form of accountability between users and a way for the original tweet to still exist alongside the edited version. This would help deter any misleading or offensive styled tweets because of the role the interaction would play. The edit button action would also help educate people on what is an error and what is a mistake — effectively creating a way to redeem oneself if need be.

We’ve seen the power of social media has on the ‘real’ world. From affecting our mental health to taking over entire elections it’s not a surprise it’s gotten to a point where we question if the pros outweigh the cons that platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, do to us. Is it worth it? And if it is, how can we make it better for everyone to interact with? What steps can we take to prevent the spread of misinformation, propaganda, and inappropriate opinions?

It’s a question that we have to continually ask ourselves, because with the advent of ‘deep fakes’, and people claiming your source is wrong, my source is right (what are we? children?) it seems like understanding what is true and what is not is becoming more and more difficult than we’d like to admit.

I believe the edit button on twitter will help aid in the fight against all of these factors, as long as there are accountability and education, Twitter can make their platform a little less toxic by implementing this.

TL;DR: