Yesterday TweetDeck updated to v0.34.1 with several nice, new features included. Among my favorite new features are: Scheduled Tweets, Translate This Tweet, and Recording Video from Webcam.

Yet, even with a bunch of new buttons to push (some old ones have been moved around, and to my dismay) there doesn’t seem to be much improved in the most important part of TweetDeck: The Tweet itself.

That entire box surrounding the 140 character posts that make up twitter has been left unscathed in TweetDeck for a few versions back now. This isn’t cool. I’ve read several gripes about those tweet boxes. (OK, that was just Phillip a couple times, but I swear I’ve seen more.)

I just want to read the tweets, see what people are talking about in chronological order, or keep up with a conversation I’m in with someone else. That’s all. Not too much to ask. You can add “features” until you turn blue in the face, but the content is what is going to drive people to use your app repeatedly. And the content is what I want.

My main issues is with “Mentions” and conversations. Those boxes just don’t cut it. There is just too many things going on that don’t need to be, and too little that does.

So here are 4 ways I would like to see TweetDeck improve their tweet box.

1. What the Eff is that? A plus sign within some brackets? Oh, so if I click it I add that person as a friend? Nope, I can add them to a List or Group. But that is accessible if I roll over the user’s image and click the bottom right “Other Actions” button, then roll over “User.” Why Double up the adding functionality? Why not save that 8 pixels or so?

2. Reformat the time stamp. Every other time stamp I see uses the format of “[Day Name], Month [Day Number] at [Time]. WordPress’s time stamp on this edit field:
This may save some space but will definitely be easier to read.

3. 30 more pixels in width. Doesn’t sound like much. Hell, doesn’t even look like much. But 30 pixels is enough space for an entire 4.5 letter word. Plus, giving a little bit more room will make many tweets fit onto 3 lines, leading to fewer hanging words. It will also help legibility of the lower info text…

4. Which you should take out that “via Some Twitter Client” part of the lower info text. Please. For the love of all things. Does anyone really care what Twitter client someone else is using?
This will give much much more room to the (RT by soAndso) and “in reply to ThatOtherTwitterUser.” Which, in most cases, the later is nearly completely disappeared and it is very, very difficult to read a conversation, whether it is one the Twitterer is just viewing or actually involved in.

These are simple changes. No drastic alterations. I just want to use TweetDeck for its intended purposes: The Tweet.

Never-the-less I still think it’s the best Twitter client available.