Nika Smith wrote a post on the Google blog today showing the evolution of Google chat before it launched in early 2006. Google does extensive testing of new products using employees as guinea pigs (see our post on the pre-launch evolution of Gmail) as well as outsiders brought in to test software and interfaces in their usability lab.
I had a chance to see the lab a few weeks ago. It’s a small room with a large flat screen monitor, along with a desk and computer. It also has a number of discrete cameras (and a microphone) that keep an eye on the user herself as well as the screen.
Around the corner is a second room where Google employees can watch people interact with the software real time. The room has a couch and a chair along with two screens and speakers to monitor the lab. See the image to the right.
The Gmail Labs team took us through some of the pre-launch iterations of Gmail chat that were tested in the lab. Most of these weren’t included in the Google post, so I’ve added them below. All of these were eventually abandoned as the team moved towards the much more low profile chat window at the bottom right of the Gmail screen we see today.
Awesome pics! Usability is a huge part and one most site owners overlook.
Mike, what is this “Caribou” logo thing on the 4 photo ?
I came here expecting to see a mountain. Maybe you should spell it properly - “Peek” That is all…
Who the hell is this HOT girl in the last picture? :O
I wanna merry her!
Can all this testing become a crutch when you lack the soul of the idea? Google has come up short on a lot of products so far. Is there a science to good product design? Or is it more of an art? I think it’s much more the latter.
No fNMR scanners.
No laser guided eye following software.
Where are the biofeedback sensors for IR, pulse etc.
I know some guys from HCI that are doing a few more advanced things than this
Or is this just the one they show the public
Nice to get an inside peak of processes like this as Google. Thanks
“Google does extensive testing of new products using employees as guinea pigs (see our post on the pre-launch evolution of Gmail) as well as outsiders brought in to test software and interfaces in their usability lab.”
Testing on their employees explains why GMail’s UI sucks in general. I don’t see any novel UI approaches in their product at all. Reminds me of pine, but requires way more clicks.
@Mans: I’m an “HCI guy” working for a large online business. Eyetracking, biofeedback another automated testing techniques used to be fairly popular in the past, but they’re now largely out of favour with all but fresh-faced usability undergraduates. This is because automated tests generate a ton of data without telling you anything about *why* the system under test behaves as it does. While you might find out that nobody looks at the submit button, or perspires when they try to log in, what you *need* to know from that is missing.
And when will be these features available?
Obviously the End product tells the whole story.
Rajeev Vashisht
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
“Caribou” is i think the codename for next version of Gmail.
> Nika Smith wrote a post on the Google blog
Missing link here
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/.....-chat.html
I use gtalk instead of yahoo messenger. It may not have all the features of ym but i need to send im’s and make voice calls. All can be done using the gtalk. I think googles mantra is simplicity and this shows in the chat client of gmail also.
@Jonathan … Gotacha and of course first things first as you say but since it is the weekend
which is for more visionary thoughts … what is really interesting is find out why we like something… which deep impulses we are triggering…This is one of my favorites , look at the diagram on page 8 and think about what is happening in those first milliseconds 
Let me know what you think.
BTW I ment fMRI no NMR
Peek. It’s not a mountain.
But Mike, how many Yahoo execs left today? Please make sure to update us on that today. You are taking your eye off the ball here.
@absolutgcs i cannot agree with you more. Googlers are in no ways a good representation of all the users(and potential users Google expects).Although Google also brings outsiders to test their products, it is obvious that the designers are relying heavily on its own employees.
It is always easier to test in “our people”. this can easily brings Google’s own mark and style into the products, however, it maybe less likely to get the most popular UI among all the people.
This can partly explain why Google’s new products, like news, finance and shopping etc. are not making big hits among the grass root–Google just doesn’t have the large user base as its search to test the UI.
Peek - Peak - that’s intentional, right, reflecting your excitement at being invited to the labs?
Gmail is NOT innovative. The only thing that is useful is the free spam filter, just as described in http://www.iopus.com/guides/gmail-spam-filter.htm
I thought even old-guard companies had usability testing labs like the one above.
-DT
P.S. ‘discreet’ cameras, right?
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/.....-chat.html
Here is the referenced Google blog post about the evolution of Google chat
@Michel
Gmail was one of the first web mail apps that:
- had more than 4MB of space (1GB at launch)
- used AJAX technologies extensively
- Was not littered with flashing adverts, but used targeted advertising instead
- Had a far more effective spam filter than Hotmail and Y!
- Included Chat in the main interface
- Allowed users to activate testing features (Labs)
- Has a Greasemonkey API for easy development of extensions
- Has POP, IMAP and SMTP support for free, for all users
- Uses labels as apposed to folders
That’s all I can think of, off the top of my head. I agree, Gmail may no longer have the flashiest interface, but to say Google didn’t innovate when developing it is a (rather obvious) lie.
I’m sorry Anonymous didn’t leave their name. They share my feeling that some companies have come to rely on testing over inspired, educated, and experienced design and engineering. That’s like relying on surveys and focus groups in politics over leadership.
Testing absolutely has its place, but over reliance on it leads to a sort of design-by-committee, lowest-common-denominator app, not a delightful one.
is that a Windows XP login screen in the last picture? lulz
@UIGeek: You can certainly rely on testing too much, but @anonymous sets up a false dichotomy.
Good interfaces require both design vision (or “soul” as he puts it) and merciless testing, both pre- and post-release. They enable one another. If you know your testing process will weed out your bad ideas, you can be braver in having them.
I once read an article where Marrissa Meyer claimed ‘…we moved the button over 2″ and experienced a 25% increase in click throughs..’ or something along those lines. I think this is Googles problem and why their products, asid from search or youtube are so cumbersome to use–they rely too much on quantifying/measuring everything to create the user experience.
It seems that Google spends a lot of time/resources spinning their wheels with incremental improvements like the example above and not enough time working on the equally time consuming, but more challenging task of thinking through the conceptual issues and their implications…
Some of the commentators seemed to deliberately ignore that Google did use external guys for testing. I think it is basic knowledge that usability tests should not rely on internal guys. The factors of internal guys and external guys in usability tests could be just a trade secret of Google.
After all, as you might have realized, no UI design could satisfy everybody. For example, while I believe that Microsoft have invested tens of millions in usability tests, I think the UI still suck.
How could anyone thing that Googles UI sucks? It’s amazing how much perspectives can differ. If you judge good UI on simple usability, which should be the case, then Google does it as good or better than anyone else - up there with Apple.
And seeing the iterations, starting with the obtrusive pop up, colored bubble and ending with the discreet, lower right pop up, makes me appreciate the delicate process involved in developing good usability while maintining style and taste.
Arrington hasn’t been heard from in 24 hours. He must be negotiating with his bankers to keep “All Things Y!” above water. Inside sources say that executives might be leaving. We will post as we hear more.
I’m not sure whats the big deal here? I know of quite a lot of companies that do UI testing of their “alpha”/to-be-released products against their internal users as well as select external contributors. This is like just another Google worship post.
A peek inside Google’s Gmail usability lab or behind the scene at Disneyland.
sigh
Wow it is always good to see what is going on behind the scenes at Google.
and with all that gear & “extensive testing”, they actually released the ‘reply all’ feature as it is in Gmail. and not fixed it.
come on, i bet you (at google) are reading my emails anyway, so you’ve seen how many times i’ve cursed your reply all implementation, when having to resend messages…
Im wondering where is my privacy while “Google employees can watch people interact with the software real time”.
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Sorry, but I think google would be a really annoying place to work
The chick in the last picture could be from Who-ville.
Seriously.
When did Cindy-Lou Who get all grown up?
Why is the screenshot on the first image half white?
@2: Caribou was the name for GMail when it was only available internally for use by Google employees. It is not, as suggested in @12, the code name for the next version of GMail.
Having usability labs is a prerequisite for any large software company and if they don’t have their own they will almost certainly have access to someone else’s. What I am interested to know is whether Google has a separate and quasi independent usability team? Marking your own homework is not a good idea and although Google are renowned for a creative culture I wonder if that can lead to conflict in the development process.
Love the comment by the guy who thinks testing is unnecessary. He/she is no doubt responsible for some of the beautiful and unusable interfaces we use every day!
Agreed that testing is critical to the software development and release process. For those of you who agree check out - http://www.testcommon.com
Search?! Why does the webmail from freakin *google* not have half way decent search capabilities? Chat? Did we really need chat integration more than the ability to easily and accurately search our 2 gigs of email? They can’t just point the google search algorithms at my inbox?
love Gmail labs…
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