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Lessons from 14 years at Google

addyosmani.com

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Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#221

Post by hnlmorg »

dijit wrote: post #121
hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much Ok, I mean this sincerely. You must never have used Microsoft tools. They managed to get their productivity suite into schools 30 years ago to cover UX issues, even now the biggest pain of moving away is the fact that users come out of school trained on it. That also happens to be their best UX. Azure? Teams?…

I hate Microsoft with the passion of a thousand burning stars, yet even I still think Google products have worse UX than their Microsoft counterparts.

MS Teams is definitely terrible. But I’d take that over Google Meets.

Google Docs isn’t even remotely as good as Office 365.

And Azure, for all its many faults, is still less confusing than GCP.

Thankfully I seldom have to touch either other these companies half-baked UIs.

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#222

Post by lostlogin »

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> Every single one of their services is a pain to use

Would you like to sign in to Google?

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#223

Post by throwaway132448 »

j3s wrote: post #96

feels LLM assisted, at the very least. > The skill isn’t being right. It’s entering discussions to align on the problem > clarity isn’t a style preference - it’s operational risk reduction > The punchline isn’t “never innovate.” It’s “innovate only where you’re uniquely paid to innovate > This isn’t strictly about self-promotion. It’s about making the value chain legible to everyone > The problem isn’t that engineers…

I’m stunned at the reception this is receiving, it’s LinkedIn-tier slop.

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#224

Post by sfmike »

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

I see it differently then UX at all. I find the need for better customer support 1000x more pertinent to helping users.

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#225

Post by agumonkey »

mike_hearn wrote: post #139
hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. There was no beancounter takeover and it never was so obsessed. I worked there from 2006-2014 in engineering roles and found this statement was particularly jarring: "User obsession means spending time in support tickets, talking to users,…

I love reading this insights in a corp structure. Especially the sociological aspect of it (like "• It was viewed negatively by managers and promo committees."). Thanks a lot.

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#226

Post by techsystems »

embedding-shape wrote: post #94
hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users It's worth noting that Osmani worked as a "developer evangelist" (at Google) for as long as I can remember, not as a developer working on a product shipped to users. It might be useful to keep that in mind as you read through what his lessons are, because they're surely shaped by the positions he held in the company.

>Osmani worked as a "developer evangelist" (at Google) for as long as I can remember, not as a developer

Oh

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#227

Post by hansmayer »

whyagaindavid wrote: post #156
hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

This is definitely an edge case. Most UI/UX from Google is very consistent and just works. Otherwise they won't be in this market. Only UI/UX issue is that most experienced users want to not adapt to change. It is like people always telling Windows 7 is the best. Don't keep reinventing. Another one that irks me is every UI/UX dev assumes people have 2 x 4K monitors and menu items overflow.

> Only UI/UX issue is that most experienced users want to not adapt to change

Users will not only adapt, but will even champion your changes if they make sense to said users. For example the web checkout or to name a more drastic example, iPhone and fingers as user interface devices. Once you start convincing the users that the interface is great, but they are too resistant to changes/dumb/uncreative to know how use it... its a different story I´d reckon ;)

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#228

Post by kmoser »

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> Recently I was writing an e-mail and noticed I misspelled the e-mail address of the recipient, which I rarely do. So, I should just be able to click the address and edit it quickly, right? Wrong - now you have a popup menu and inside of it you have to search for "edit e-mail" option.

I just tested this out and I don't think that's a particularly good example of bad UI/UX. Clicking the email address brings up a menu with options for other actions, which presumably get used more often. If, instead, you right-click the email address, the option to edit it is right there (last item on the bottom, "Change email address"). I don't see this as a huge penalty given that, as you said, it's rarely used.

There's also the "X" to the right of the email address, which you can use to delete it entirely, no extra clicks required.

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#229

Post by sans_souse »

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

To me; point #3 is the big one and it is in conflict with point #1

Re: Lessons from 14 years at Google

#230

Post by goostavos »

paulpauper wrote: post #63
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is partly LLM generated or edited, fairly certain

I think it's inevitable everyone will use LLMs to assist with writing, such as editing, if it hasn't happen already. It's like having a free editor, beyond grammar or spell-checking.

If the only reason you write is as a means to and end, sure. Inevitable. If you pursue it as a craft then the struggle and imperfections are part of the process. LLM usage would sand away those wonderful flaws.
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