“Google, this is bad marketing. You have changed the way we search the web and we had to get used to the new layout again and again. And now again. Please do not change the layout just for the sake of it.” – a person

Today, Google has yet again changed their design. I can see the smiles on the faces of the management: we did it, we again improved the user experience.

Let us go through what sort of user experience Google has improved.

1. Change

People get used to things. Change is never easy. Unnecessary change is bad user experience because people will have to spend time and effort to figure out how the new works and get used to it. Change is good when it makes sense. It does not make sense to change just for the sake of it. Don’t misunderstand me, I like change. However, I like changes that improve something. Google’s design changes have not improved anything. Users are upset. It did not make sense.

2. Navigation

The new design suggests that drop down is better than top navigation or side navigation. How untrue. Corporations started to use drop downs because they had too many things to talk about… and they needed to put just one more page under a main page. Just for the sake of it. Look at wordpress.com or apple.com – neither of them use drop down navigation (WordPress had dropdowns but they eliminated them because they realised it’s not working). Drop down navigation hides “options”. When you create a drop down navigation you choose to hide content that may be relevant to the user. Long time ago Jacob Nielsen have said that the web user scans the page. You can’t scan something that is hidden can you? No, of course not. That’s why it’s a bad idea to use drop downs when you can avoid it.

3. Jump

If you start typing your search keyword into Google’s search box it immediately jumps up. It creates a very bad user experience. I’m not too sure what else can I say about this point. It’s simply not cool.

Now, there you have it. I hope that Google will soon realise that with these “UX improvements” they are eliminating their users. Make design changes when it’s necessary but don’t do it just for the sake of it.

“We understand if you are dissatisfied, if you wish to help us please let us know the reason of the crash” This is the message I’ve recently come across when uninstalling a software and I was amazed. Usually these sort of messages go like this “Reason of uninstallation…”

It was an IM History program I was testing and it didn’t work. It crashed, froze, had bugs, it error-ed etc. So I uninstalled it but without feeling treated like I’m just there to tell them the reason for the crash. No, my feeling of dissatisfaction was noted, understood and my opinion for improvement was asked.

The words you use to communicate with your dissatisfied users can make or break your product. Yes, your product should work. But when things go wrong make dissatisfaction a good user experience.