Categories
Google Mozilla Web Development

Usefulness + Speed = Users

As a frontend developer I’ve long argued the magic formula for a good website is:

Usefulness + Speed = Users

This is based on the fact that the best websites on the internet are pretty spartan in appearance. When you look at many of the successful ones (Google, Yahoo, Craigslist, Facebook), they’ve all taken the approach of simplicity on the frontend. They keep the user interface as minimal as possible, and they keep the technology and code as minimal as possible.

An interesting quote from CNet:

The same effect happened with Google Maps. When the company trimmed the 120KB page size down by about 30 percent, the company started getting about 30 percent more map requests. “It was almost proportional. If you make a product faster, you get that back in terms of increased usage,” she said.

Emphasis mine.

Just goes to show that faster things become more than useful to users. They become a convenience. Users don’t really care how it looks or they would have switched from boring Google a long time ago. They just find it so convenient and quick they can’t stop using it.

I suspect this is why digital clocks are so popular.

Roman Numeral Analog Clock

Most people find an analog clock to be “classy”, in particular when there are roman numerals. But when you come down to being practical, they aren’t as quick to read for most people since we rarely deal with roman numerals. The solution used to be using Arabic numbers to increase usability and speed:

Arabic Numeral Analog Clock

This is better, but not perfect. Still slow to read, and your estimating the minutes. These days, we have the technology to produce low cost digital time readouts with Arabic numbers. These are more accurate since they show the minutes, and maybe even seconds, and can be read at a glance with almost no effort.

Arabic Digital Clock

Despite hardly looking fancy, this is what you see in most train stations, airports, etc. The older clocks are still around, but mostly for aesthetic purposes. People are willing to sacrifice looks for convenience. That’s why they walk around with digital watches rather than the more classy ones. Both can be found for cheap, but one can easily be read (even with poor vision, and in the dark).

Simplicity always rules. Unless your a nerd with a binary clock (which is cool).

I suspect this rule also holds true for software. If it’s faster, people are more inclined to use it. People moved from IE 6 to Firefox because it’s faster. Given that Firefox 3 is even faster… I’m hoping this trend will be proven yet again with an improved adoption rate.

Another upcoming test of this principle will be the Apple’s 3G iPhone. Will the average number of minutes browsing the web increase with the additional speed of a 3G network? Will faster performance make people use the device more? I suspect so. I also think it will increase adoption as many people were turned off on the idea of spending that much for EDGE. For 3G, that’s a different story.

It’s really pretty interesting stuff. People often associate usability with user interface design, and never performance. But that data really does seem to point to performance being one of the easiest ways to make a product more usable.

Images: Grand Central Terminal clock © 2004 Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Clock in Kings Cross, LCD Clock Grey via Wikipedia

Categories
Google Yankees

Google Street Views

Google enhanced it’s maps service by offering “street views”. Currently it’s only available in certain cities. Regardless it’s pretty cool. They appear as flash objects in those popup bubbles that Google Maps uses. you can drag and move around from within them as well similar to that of QuickTime VR.

I decided to take a look around NYC and make a few bookmarks. Enjoy.

Times Square

Columbus Circle

Empire State Building

Madison Sq. Garden

World Trade Center Site

Union Square

Rockefeller Center

Central Park

City Hall

On The Brooklyn Bridge

On the Verrazano Bridge

Yankee Stadium

Flushing Meadows Park (site of 1939-1940, 1964 World’s Fair).

Ed Sullivan Theater (Hello Deli is right next door).

Carnegie Hall (and Carnegie Deli).

NY Public Library

Grand Central

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Macy’s 34th Street

Flatiron Building

Port Authority

Interestingly nothing near the NY Stock Exchange is visible. It’s notably blacked out for about a block around. Same goes for the United Nations. I’m virtually certain this is for security reasons.

Categories
Around The Web Google

Google Maps Image Variation

Some may not know this, but as you zoom in with Google Maps, the imagery that’s used may change, as a result on occasion some strange things may happen. The following is a great example.

On Lybia’s shoreline (with the Mediterranean sea), you can tell there’s either some seasonal flooding, or some big tide difference. Open that link (as is), and zoom in 1 level. You’ll be able to see the difference. Still curious if it’s flooding or a tide thing.

Edit [9/18/06]: I should note at some point this will likely prove false, as Google occasionally updates the images.