Foursquare Cleans Up Profile Pages, Hints At Key New Metrics?

In the battle of Foursquare versus Gowalla in the location space, Gowalla is often thought of as “the pretty one.” But Foursquare has been attempting to improve their look and feel recently with a number of changes. The latest comes today with new profile pages.

As you can see, the new user pages have a much cleaner design. Just as with the recently redesigned venue pages, Tips are now more clearly labeled and To-Dos are explained better. It seems clear that Foursquare is trying to move the service beyond the check-in and attempting to provide more utility to users with their other features.

Badges and mayorships are also now look much nicer in the sidebar. And the key stats: Days Out, Check-Ins, and Things Done have been moved into a profile card that’s front and center.

Previously, profiles showed “Total Nights Out”, “Total Checkins”, “To-Dos Now Done”, and “Total Things Done.” This has been simplified to the new metrics, and each of those would come into play in a revamped Foursquare game.

The “Things Done” aspect is particularly intersting. It would seem that this could be a key new metric in the upcoming Foursquare 2.0 gaming features. We already know that part of that will likely include a “choose-your-own-adventure” aspect. Getting things done may be a part of that.

Of course, Gowalla also just recently revamped their profile pages, and now allows users to customize them.

Foursquare’s director of business development Tristan Walker credits developer Mike Singleton with this profile work.

Below, find the new Foursquare profile. And below that, find what Gowalla’s currently look like.