October 4th, 2006
New Google Groups product for testing
Google has announced a new beta version of Google Groups — it looks really good. You can tell they have spent many hours on the user experience, however I have a few suggestions that would add to the usability a bit later in the post.
According to the official announcement by Brett Lider, there are many new features that go along with the cleaner and well thought out design. First, group owners can create a welcome message, upload a group logo, customize fonts and colors — basically making your "group" unique and tailored to your preferences.
Pages are new too. You (and if you give permission, anyone) can create "pages" using the familiar "Google Pages" WYSIWYG editor. It will be interesting to see how this feature ends up being used. In addition to that, you can also upload files — handy for group owners that want to "share and collaborate on documents".
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there is one thing that is already driving me up the wall — the right sidebar. The "navigate using the left sidebar" convention isn't being used, potentially causing confusion. Conventions are wonderful things, and are usually a "free ticket" for people doing user experience work. Conventions avoid question marks — those evil things that make users "wonder". Simply moving the right sidebar to the left would take care of any head scratching.
I must admit though, the User Experience and Google Groups teams have done a great job on this product — they have really put their heads together to create a better overall experience.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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