Google, Time to Simplify
We were all taught to think of Google as the king of usability. This stems mainly from their flagship product, search, which is so simple it helped create an entirely new paradigm for search engines.
The paradigm for usability: self-explanatory, unambiguous, easy to use.
However, nearly every other tool Google offers fails to live up to this standard. Screens are cluttered and clumsily laid out; instructions are required (and often incomprehensible) because the UIs are non-intuitive; and sometimes it’s just plain hard to understand what a tool is supposed to do (in fact, I believe this last item prevented widespread adoption of the much-hyped Google Wave: no one knew what it was or how to use it).
In so many regards, Google is a company to be admired. But I think they’ve forgotten that usable tools tend to be self-explanatory (hammers and doorknobs being a couple great examples).
Google, it’s time to simplify things.
2 Comments
Julie
17 February , 2010See also: Google Buzz
Michael McWatters
17 February , 2010The one advantage Buzz has is that it is built into your webmail experience, so it will have an easier adoption path. But, you’re correct, they’ve done a poor job of marketing it or describing its value.