the Design Experience Weblog Archive

Is Google hiding complexity, or do they know how to focus? [www.jnd.org]

Don Norman says google isn simple, it just hides complexity. I think this is not quite the whole truth. Norman goes on to say that MSN and Yahoo, for example, are simpler because they show you all your options on the home page. I seriously doubt that Norman recommends his clients show every possible option on their web site home pages.

He also says, to get to google news you have to click several times. When I want Google News, I visit http://news.google.com. No additional clicks required. When I want a map, I got to maps.google.com. When I want to check my email I go to gmail.com. There are seperate services, all provided by one company. Google is not trying to be a portal, although you can personlize the home page. This actually refutes Norman's entire premise, since he commends Yahoo for offering a customizable home page where you can get news etc on the main page.

Another way google helps is by "knowing" what you want. If you search for something, it gives you the right thing most of the time, without your having to know if its from the "news" site, or "maps". If you search for an address, the first search result goes to Google Maps. If I search for "news about hurricane katrina" the first result goes to google news. Seems to me that Google is simplfying things by giving me what I want, without my having to choose from hundreds of possible links on one page. This leads me to recommend a book, Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug.

08:44 AM, 16 Sep 2005 by dave bauer Permalink | Comments (0)
categories: Open Source Content Management , Search

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