Google’s Battle Between Love and User Testing
I think everyone would like to have this problem:
Google is trying out a number of new UI improvements with SearchMash that it may or may not implement into Google’s current search engine, but doesn’t want the user experience to be skewed by Google’s brand name. The general public has such positive feelings towards Google that users might be inclined to simply like whatever is presented to them, which would hinder a true analysis of what’s actually good and what’s not.
Even though it’s almost never going to happen for us normal, only-kind-of-liked folks, Google’s predicament begs a really interesting question: how do you test new products, or big product revisions, on people who are intimately familiar with, and really really love your existing product? You can’t simply recruit people for testing, sit them down in a room, and have your facilitator say, "OK, this is the new Google. What do you think?&qout; This invites very biased responses: passionate users (as most who use Google are) will have passionate answers that are inherently biased towards the thing (product, idea, etc.) that they like like (or dislike). Preference, in either direction - love or hate - breeds passion; passion leads to a bias. So, how did Google avoid bringing preference into testing? They used the software equivalent of the blind taste test.
We’ve all seen those crazy Pepsi vs. Coke, "if you blindfold 10 people and have them drink a Pepsi and a Coke, 9 out of 10 will take the Pepsi," ads on TV. Google’s brought this out of the world of TV (and traditional product research), and remapped it to the web: "9 out of 10 people who didn’t know they were using a Google search product really liked our new features" Now, you’re able to get unbiased results for a beloved product. Without any bitter aftertaste!
technorati tags:google, usability, user-centered design, ucd, research, search, user, testing
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