Twitter says it is changing the contrast of its new buttons, as users complain about headaches after its redesign that some experts say isn't very accessible
After teasing its new font in January, Twitter made some major changes to its website and app design this week.
TechCrunchAmanda Silberling
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter’s latest interface release introduced its proprietary Chirp font alongside stark black-and-white follow controls, following earlier efforts to standardize its app and web presentation. The company had also taken a simplified desktop design global after a limited test, making the new accessibility complaints part of an ongoing, platform-wide design program.
The reported contrast change is a quick correction to the new high-contrast control scheme, rather than a wholesale reversal of the redesign. It matters because the affected controls sit in routine account-management flows across Twitter’s services.
First-order effects
Twitter will alter the contrast of its new buttons in response to feedback, directly changing the experience for users who found the redesign visually uncomfortable or inaccessible.
The design team must revise a prominent component introduced with the Chirp-era rollout, rather than treating the initial visual treatment as final.
Second-order effects
Accessibility feedback becomes an operational input for Twitter’s design releases, increasing pressure to test high-contrast treatments against a wider range of user needs before broad deployment.
A component-level rollback preserves the broader redesign while signaling that visual consistency cannot override usability in frequently used controls.
Third-order effects
If Twitter continues to pair broad interface rollouts with rapid corrective changes, accessibility review is likely to become a more explicit release gate for shared design components across web and app surfaces.
The pattern favors adaptable design systems over fixed visual refreshes: centralized controls can be adjusted quickly, but their failures also propagate widely.
The trend: Consumer platforms are treating accessibility feedback as a constraint on centralized design-system rollouts, not merely as post-launch support work.
IMO the Twitter redesign is a mess. They've still got blue as their core colour but when you like something it's red and now the follow button is black and following is white I don't understand why you would change this one thing? So confused.
This is kind of interesting. I too did feel that the new Twitter design was easier to look at, but I also did feel like my eyes were having a harder time... well... https://techcrunch.com/...
Twitter needs to stop referring to the knowledge and expertise of disabled people as feedback. Full stop. It is extractive, unpaying, and undignifying. They said ‘feedback’ 3 times in their 30 something word quote. Did they just cull our Tweets? Who got paid for this ‘feedback’? …
@refactorfiend @Carnage4Life We looked at it as an overdue correction. It's hard to adjust if you were used to the old ui, but it's more conventional and friendly to new users.
@TwitterDesign You could've just made the font changeable based on the user settings (and Android already did that! Not sure about iOS though) and made a lot of this under settings, instead of forcing it upon users that don't even want the change
While annoying, Twitter's change to invert the colors of the follow button make sense for the service. The button is a Call To Action and for Twitter it makes most sense to urge you to Follow someone. Emphasizing who you already follow doesn't encourage following new people. http…
@TwitterDesign Twitter has now become your domestic partner😂! You get home and they are like “honey do you notice anything different? I've been working all day rearranging all of your stuff don't be mad, while I might feel weird at first you are going to love it!” 🤬🤬🤬😂 😂😂
@TwitterDesign yo it sucks. this font looks unfinished. hope you didn't pay them for a job well done cuz this aint even satisfactory. Not even close. I feel like i'm playing a retro video game from late 80's era. this isn't “easier” to read. who was your test focus group for this…