Google’s approach to design: evolution, not revolution
– posted March 15th, 2007 by Laurence Veale Comments (5)
At some stage today, Google released a very small tweak of their Google Reader interface. I barely even noticed, but then I did. And I liked it.
They moved the refresh link from the bottom of the feed list to the top and changed it to a button.
Hardly revolutionary, but it’s just the latest in a series of user interface changes they’ve been regularly releasing on Google Reader.
For me, it highlights a process that should be far more prevalent in other online spaces whether it’s personal banking, media, airline websites, whatever: that of evolutionary design, not revolutionary design.
Releasing small changes often is a very different approach to the typical software development approach of the big bang, go-live and one that could have far less impact on your unsuspecting users.
On a commercial site these kind of small changes, if properly researched, could dramatically increase conversion rates without the huge cost of a major relaunch.
What do you think?
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Categories Design, Spotted, Technology, Usability
5 comments so far
1. Richard on Mar 15th, 2007 - 20:17
Didn’t you notice that they updated all the other buttons also? Mark As Read, (the other) Refresh and View Settings all got the same style treatment.
2. Keith Donegan on Mar 16th, 2007 - 00:53
Yeah, that always bugged me alot about the button being so low down… At least they fixed it anywho.
3. Lar on Mar 16th, 2007 - 10:03
@Richard Thanks for that, I actually missed those, had just opened reader and noticed the change and blogged it straight away. Mea culpa, should have looked around to see what else had changed.
Might catch up on Wednesday at Search Marketing conference?
4. Eoghan McCabe on Mar 16th, 2007 - 11:06
That’s a good point. It’s organisations like banks that could most benefit from work like this. I think interface changes don’t sell well though (inside the organisation to the stakeholders and outside the organisation to the users). It’s much easier to add new features than try perfect existing ones.
5. Richard on Mar 16th, 2007 - 12:20
@Lar - We will have a nice 2 hour block of free time to sit and have a chat while Google flog Adwords. It really is a joke having the 2 sessions consecutively with no other sessions running (apart from the clinics, surprise, surprise). Worth going to a Google session, have your badge scanned, sit in the back row, and leave after 90 seconds. That way you’ll get the €50 voucher.
Believe me ‘advanced’ issues include ‘how to turn on Google Analytics’, ‘how to download Adwords Editor’, ‘how many people use the Internet’ and many other ‘advanced topics’. Sat through about 3 minutes of it at SES London and left. Total sales tripe. And quite a number of people were complaining about it (they neglected the back row exit strategy). God help the poor fools who go to the Beginners session.
I’ll pop you a mail to set a meeting point and choice of colour for the carnation we’ll both wear
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