SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter, long protected in its Silicon Valley nest, is about to venture into the more unforgiving world of Wall Street.

But as it makes the transition to a publicly traded company, attracting and retaining users has become one of its biggest challenges.

Twitter’s interface can be daunting to newcomers. A user has to invest a lot of time to figure out the right accounts to follow and to understand the unique jargon of the service.

And its fundamental design — every 140-character tweet is delivered in chronological order, no matter how important or trivial — means that compelling information can be lost in a sea of babble.