The Ratio of Twitter

In the article “The Ratio Establishes Itself on Twitter” by Mike Isaac, a formula is introduced for figuring out how well a tweet has been received. The way the ratio works is to “Divide the number of replies you get to a tweet by the number of likes and retweets. If the former category is much larger than the latter, you probably tweeted something awful” (Isaac). This ratio was first used for political tweets as a way for candidates to track how well received they were by the public for their views on tough issues. To prove the ratio with an example, Isaac used Chris Cillizza who is a CNN political commentator and the most ratioed man on Twitter. On most occasions, the replies far outway the number of likes and retweets he gets, proving that his tweets are very controversial and “probably awful.”

After looking at the ratio difference of Chris Cillizza’s tweets, I decided to look at the ratio of tweets for Joe Berlinger over his film “Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile.” This film starred Zac Efron and Lily Collins as they depicted Ted Bundy’s life from the view of his girlfriend Liz Kloepfer. From the initial release at Sundance Film Festival, the replies and tweets were negative and questioned the moral of the film. Yet, now with an actual ratio, I wanted to check and see if Berlinger’s tweets about the film were actually “awful” or if the media just picked up on a few tweeters who disliked the film.

On January 26th, 2019 at 8:24pm, Joe Berlinger tweets “Just two hours to go for #worldpremiere of #extremelywickedshockinglyevilandvile!! Sh*tting a Brick! But excited... @ Park City, Utah.” This tweet was Berlinger’s reaction to the first premier of the film at Sundance Film Festival and had 7 replies, 20 retweets, and 81 likes, creating a ratio of 7:101. With this ratio, this tweet is considered great! Plus, with a further investigation, all of the replies are wishing Berlinger luck, so this is an example of a great tweet and interaction at the film’s beginning.

As the showings for this film went on, the tweets started to become popular with interaction and opinions. On January 29, 2019 at 12:51pm Berlinger tweets, “Thank you for your kind and generous perspective: ‘Ted Bundy Survivor praises Zac Efron, says everyone should see 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’” with a link to an article. This tweet received more interaction than the last one with 69 replies, 846 retweets, and 6,000 likes. That creates a ratio of 69:6,846, confirming its positivity. By this time, people not at Sundance had watched the trailer and it set tweeters off on tangents, angry that Berlinger was glorifying Ted Bundy. Berlinger was pushing positive press to offset these uninformed tweeters.

Overall, using the ratio to check the quality of Berlinger’s tweets proved that he was tweeting out great content. Even though the press was focused on the negative side, his tweets by themselves showed the true story of positive interaction.

Designers vs. Coders

In an excerpt from the ebook Interaction Design Best Practices: Mastering the Tangibles by Jerry Cao, Kamil Zieba and Matt Ellis of UXPin, the question of coders versus designers is raised. In a perfect world, every business would be able to hire someone who has excessive, equal knowledge in coding and designing and would be able to take on both jobs without needing additional help, yet in reality, the best designers only know the basics of code and coders can only see the basics of design. Instead of trying to find a “unicorn,” coders and designers need to focus on communicating effectively and also have brief knowledge in the other’s content in order to know how to communicate what they want or need. They also state that empathy is a huge quality the coders and designers need to possess to be successful.

To create a diverse platform that will engage with users productively, a business needs a team of people, not just an individual. Cao, Zieba, and Ellis all believe the key to success is to not work alone and instead “specialists need to know what others are capable of, even if they don’t understand the precise techniques.” It is important to have strong knowledge in one's field, but in order for a team to prosper and work efficiently, they have to understand each members field to communicate. A strain in communication only leads to upset businesses and disappointed or frustrated viewers which creates the war of designers versus coders. Businesses and companies need to take time to create a cohesive staff that is able to work together to produce quality work. Without this effort, there will be a war between the two fields that will result in unusable content.

To help with this quick divide of talent between coders and designers, a top trait Cao, Zieba, and Ellis look for when hiring is empathy and humility. They state that “designers need to relate to both their clients and the rest of their team to understand not just what they’re saying, but what they really mean. And that calls for a little humility.” This trait seems to be focused on designers only as they hold the vision of the project. A strong designer is able to communicate with her team because she/he understands their team. A simple understanding of tasks, traits, and skills can help to ease the divide between the two most important people on the team.

Designers and coders are essential to every creative team. Without the vision of the designer or the technology skills of the coder, webpages, interfaces, or new sources would never function, or at least be easily usable by consumers. This battle over who is more important and who has the best skills does not matter if they do not have the other to back up the vision or create the page. Instead of arguing over who is more beneficial, companies should focus on finding two people that match and empathetically understand the others field of work.

For Further Reading see: https://www.fastcompany.com/3050675/designers-should-design-coders-should-code