Playing with Google+ I've discovered a new and interesting tool: Google Feedback.I work with web pages everyday (defining and creating new services and products). The most important thing that I've learned is: "design for the user", no one of the company has the Truth. The user is the judge.
For this reason is important to know as soon as possible: Which is the opinion of the user?, Detect and collect which are the mistakes that you can't see for any rare situacion....
The internet ecosystem is everyday more complex (more devices, more browsers, diferent page sizes, diferent DSL speeds, and so on...). That situation makes dificult to test and prevent any possible situation. Companies like Google overcomes this situation giving to an small group of users the oportunitiy to test "beta" products and services (early than anybody else) in exchange of reporting errors.
In this case, Google has developed its own way to collect errors. They have included some interesting features to the process:
1. Add an screenshot of the error (an image is more valuable than 1000 words).
2. Indicate feature allows you to indicate with a white box, any zone of the page, to figure out the feedback
3. Shade feature allows you to indicate with a black box, any zone of the page, to figure out the feedback
4. Comments box
Before you send the feedback message, you can preview the message, and you see which other environmental information Google is collecting.
At InfoJobs we had / have a rudimental way to collect feedback for each page, and for me, it was quite useful. But the thing is.... some one should be the responsible to follow up regularly the content of the feedback. If you really believe the opinions of the users, you invest time and money with this kind of tools to analyze faster and intelligently the content of the feedback. But these kind of projects are dificult to sell internally, because is something that few people is able to understand.
I imagine that under this feedback face, Google have developed a powerful BackEnd to take advantatge of the thousands of comments that they receive everyday
I'm really surprised with the many cool things that has Google+
Hi Marc,
ResponderEliminarYou're correct on your appreciation. The user is the one who has the final saying, but quite often designers and engineers forget this golden rule. You can like or not like Google, but the fact is that they've pinpointed out this. However, they sometimes forget this (for example and as far as I can remember, Buzz was never tested this way). It's nice to see companies that work for the user, understanding what he/she want.
Cheers