Live data from Hacker News

Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

dcurt.is

41–50 of 54 posts

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#42
The first time I needed a permalink to particular tweet, I spent good five minutes looking around for it. Only accidentally I noticed that the timestamp has it, and it didn't strike me as obvious at all.

Having a link which clearly says 'Details' seems much more intuitive in this case. And even if it was indeed Twitter who has started this pattern of linkifying timestamps, now it could be considered as them backing off from confusing UX decision that many sites parroted.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#43
post #22

...although sometimes it takes a little batshit crazy to break convention and change things for the better. Really, only time will tell... I keep getting reminded of Zuckerberg's Startup School interview ( http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/298808358 ) where he talks about moving equally too fast and too slow or as Jessica called it "a willingness to break things." On one hand, I'm slightly frustrated at all these…

this is not a change for the better, what possible advantage does it offer?

At least on google+ they didn't just remove the ability to reload. They replaced it with the ability to go back to the top of your stream without reloading everything.

Since google+ already loads new posts automatically. This has the same practical effect as before in most cases. But with the advantage of faster loading since it doesn't reload everything because it doesn't need to.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#44
The article is missing an important detail. They didn't just remove the ability to reload. They replaced it with the ability to go back to the top of your stream without reloading everything. (on g+ at least)

Since google+ already loads new posts automatically. In practice this will do almost the same as before, but with less waiting on the client side. Sounds like a smart design choice imo.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#45

The article is missing an important detail. They didn't just remove the ability to reload. They replaced it with the ability to go back to the top of your stream without reloading everything. (on g+ at least) Since google+ already loads new posts automatically. In practice this will do almost the same as before, but with less waiting on the client side. Sounds like a smart design choice imo.

If that's the case, that makes sense on google+. On GMail though, I personally am used to clicking on the logo to refresh my inbox. Now I have to click on the navigation tab "inbox" to do that. It isn't a big deal really, but I find it odd to completely rip out the previous action only to replace it with no action at all.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#46
post #32

I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…

That functionality -- especially in regard to the news tab -- drives me nuts. Over and over I click the top news tab forgetting I have to click the link on the side and lose the current context of my search.

At first I just assumed it was a bug since the other tabs kept the context of the search. Then after a week of the same, I looked into how to flag the issue so it could be fixed and low and behold I found it was a product feature (or non-feature).

Its such a strange UX decision that I have to assume that it is driven by revenue generation or some other metric rather than good user experience.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#47

What is also annoying is when the logo on a company/product's blog goes to the blog index rather than the homepage of the company, leaving me to either manually edit the url or look for the link which is always in a different place with different text. If your blog exists to drive traffic to your product, why would you not link that big logo in the top left to the product page? This is second in annoyance only to com…

I've never understood how any company could let this happen and yet we see it constantly. Perhaps it's because Wordpress or TypePad or Posterous don't let them change the link at the top, but I doubt it.

It definitely ranks as one of the most common Web 101 mistakes out there.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#48
post #32

I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…

That functionality -- especially in regard to the news tab -- drives me nuts. Over and over I click the top news tab forgetting I have to click the link on the side and lose the current context of my search. At first I just assumed it was a bug since the other tabs kept the context of the search. Then after a week of the same, I looked into how to flag the issue so it could be fixed and low and behold I found it was…

I've always assumed the Google News link losing state was a bug. It's a tab bar, and it used to keep state. Now it doesn't.

I suppose they had to do it this way or nobody would ever really see the Google news homepage (as if that matters).

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#49
post #32

I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…

I cannot agree more. Has it always been like this or is this a recent change? I thought I remembered a time in which clicking "News" did keep your old search term but I cannot be sure. In any case, this behavior has been a bane to me since I discovered it.

Re: Google's new "batshit crazy" UX

#50
post #32

I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…

I've noticed that the past couple months or so. It used to correctly keep your search term across categories.
Post reply on HN