Normally whenever you try to cramp all the good ideas together in one place, most of the time you get a Frankenstein’s Monster. That’s one of the common design mistake, and that’s what this version of Google Wave does. Please allow me to break it down for you why I think Wave has a lot to improve, so the Wave team can keep their job. Don’t get me wrong. Google Wave is a great invention. It just deserves more love from the design stand point.
1. Different Address from Google account.
I mean. Seriously? This is such a no brainer. I don’t know if there is any political issue behind Wave happen to need it’s own address separated from regular google account, but this problem took down Wave survival rate a lot. Today, designing products comes hand in hand with designing strategies. 21st Century designers not only think about what the design would do but also how the product will fit in the users’ lifestyle and product ecology. This is one thing that Wave design team didn’t do justice to their product. They didn’t strategically place Wave well enough in the wealth of Google ecological system, which bring us to the next point.
2. Wave standalone positioning.
People have their own way of doing things already. The Internet and IM clients are not new anymore. Making just another IM on steroid isn’t going to make the cut. Many functionalities in Wave are similar to what GTalk and Gmail are doing. There is no point repeat those functionality again on the different application. Instead, I think Wave can be a powerful add-on for Gmail or Gtalk. One of the biggest complains about Wave is the weird way of merging sms, email, and chat into a weird thread. That’s just confusing.
However,if I say, Gmail will have a new functionality that you can view a communication with the other person from many devices in one conversation thread. Doesn’t it sound better?
3. Too many “sounds good” technologies in one package.
The most popular example will be the real time chat message display that will show your message while you type. It sounds awesome when it “can” do something like that, but that doesn’t mean the users would want to use it. I’m not saying that the technology is a stupid invention, but the design team didn’t put it to the right usage. When first vinyl recording system came out, it was called “The Dictator.” The old school record player was for bosses to dictate their employer what to do. Sound stupid, isn’t it? But once people started use the record player technology in music, the modern music industry was born.
Putting too many “can do” doesn’t always mean you are making a better product. Sometimes you over complicate you design. Many times a simple design that do few things very well are more successful than one design that tries too hard to do many things but sucks at all. Especially, softwares or web tools. Why? Because you don’t need that much time to switch applications. It’s like if you are shopping and you can move from one specific or specialized store to another faster than walk from aisle to aisle in Wal-Mart, why go to Wal-Mart. The key is to make many applications work well together. The success of Adobe Creative Suites is a good example of letting each app does it’s best job and work well together.
Google Wave technology is great. The design team just need to put it to a better use. Further, when you introduce a new interaction norm, make sure you “introduce” it properly. Give the users on-off function, and let them choose when they want to use the new function. User interaction standards took a lot of time to change. Ease your invention into it.
Google success roots from revolutionized the online world with simplicity. I believe if Wave doesn’t forget its legacy, there is a way to start a new ‘Wave.’
