My Dock Got ‘Decked…

One of the programs I regularly use to keep up with Twitter is Tweetdeck. It helps me meet my goals using Twitter: easy tracking of people I follow, easy posting, short URL integration, instant notification, trending, columned viewing, custom grouping and simplified navigation. It does all of the things that Twitter can't do by itself at a much more reliable level. There are no fail whales on Tweetdeck. I had seen the old icon for Tweetdeck on many a designer's dock, constantly wondering what the heck the program was. And, of course, it's nearly impossible to search for an app based on it's icon. It didn't help that it was a black bird because all I got were Beatles Lyrics and torrents to download Beatles music (or close to that result anyway). Well, in all of the Twitter research I did over the last few months I discovered what it was and fell in love with the program.

To be honest, the old icon is ugly as sin. The illustration is awkward and clunky and the dimensionality is equally poor. It's got some really uncomfortably sharp creases in the highlights, and the weighting of the various anatomical parts is... off. However, it was always very easy to find, and quite frankly it was unique among the slew of square icons on my dock.  As you can tell by the dock image, it fits in quite nicely with my CS products (even better if you've upgraded to CS4). And, quite frankly, I hate it. And the bird illustration is even more clunky (if that's possible...) Without the dimensionality, the head has gotten too heavy and feels fat. The small feather indications on the head, tail, and wing are gone. The balance is forced forward, making the bird look like it's going to fall forward. Some of the weight is gone from the upper part of the leg (and there wasn't enough to begin with) and now it feels too twiggy. The wing is also gone, further forcing the weight too far forward. A small clip out of the tail was also "resolved" and now it's a fluid, but unbalanced shape. It feels more like an awkward Peep than a bird. For all of the problems the original had, it had finesse. I also don't want it to blend even more with my dock. For some, that's probably a relief, for me, it does the opposite of what the original did by standing out. It's also lost a bit of it's legitimacy too, taking on the web2.0 psuedo-design feel that most of them have taken. It's joined the legion of icons that all look the exact same, attempting to declare "hey! I'm web2.0 too!" Ehn.