Saturday, June 18, 2005
Do users know what they want?
There has been a lot of public outcry about Google obfuscating the delete button in the ever popular Gmail. Seems as if there is a vocal and active user base who want a simple way to delete Gmail messages. There is even a GreaseMonkey script that moves the delete button to a more prominent position in the UI.
I find the whole delete button debate to be a good case study for prioritizing features and user feedback. From everything I have read and heard Google has intentionally buried this feature because they want to change user behavior. The reason they gave everyone two Gigs was so we would never have to worry about storage. Removing that constraint means it is possible to keep all your email for virtually forever. Next Google adds search on top of Gmail's unlimited storage and you have a new paradigm for email. No need to delete a message and forget all the filing in folders. Google's world is about archiving and search.
Okay, well that is all well and good and Google does make a compelling case to change the way you manage your email. That doesn't change the fact that a whole bunch of people want to delete email. We all get emails we know we will never read again so why not delete. Maybe users just prefer to delete some stuff. Of course, most likely it's straight up inertia. We have always been able to delete email before and why not now? In fact, the corporate IT folks have trained us to delete email. Haven't we all gotten the "you have exceeded your mailbox limit" message at one time or another?
So how does Google decide what to do? Does Gmail's product marketing stick to their guns and continue to hide the delete button? Do they cave and let us return to our familiar deleting ways? Maybe a little moderate middle ground, add an option to show the delete button in user settings?
I think it comes down to power. Google has an extraordinary brand and the wherewithal to attempt to change user behavior. It would seem Google is so powerful it can shape how we use computers, even if that is not exactly what we want. Hmm, is that good or bad? Who knows better Google or the end user? ¶ 12:00 AM
I find the whole delete button debate to be a good case study for prioritizing features and user feedback. From everything I have read and heard Google has intentionally buried this feature because they want to change user behavior. The reason they gave everyone two Gigs was so we would never have to worry about storage. Removing that constraint means it is possible to keep all your email for virtually forever. Next Google adds search on top of Gmail's unlimited storage and you have a new paradigm for email. No need to delete a message and forget all the filing in folders. Google's world is about archiving and search.
Okay, well that is all well and good and Google does make a compelling case to change the way you manage your email. That doesn't change the fact that a whole bunch of people want to delete email. We all get emails we know we will never read again so why not delete. Maybe users just prefer to delete some stuff. Of course, most likely it's straight up inertia. We have always been able to delete email before and why not now? In fact, the corporate IT folks have trained us to delete email. Haven't we all gotten the "you have exceeded your mailbox limit" message at one time or another?
So how does Google decide what to do? Does Gmail's product marketing stick to their guns and continue to hide the delete button? Do they cave and let us return to our familiar deleting ways? Maybe a little moderate middle ground, add an option to show the delete button in user settings?
I think it comes down to power. Google has an extraordinary brand and the wherewithal to attempt to change user behavior. It would seem Google is so powerful it can shape how we use computers, even if that is not exactly what we want. Hmm, is that good or bad? Who knows better Google or the end user? ¶ 12:00 AM
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
I've always bought into Gmail's paradigm, even as an Outlook user. I haven't deleted an e-mail since 1997.
Other people do seem to be quite adamant about deleting e-mail. What's funny is that those same people sometimes come crawling back to me, asking me if I have a copy of an e-mail they deleted.
Why not delete unwanted e-mail? Because there clearly are costs (e.g. taking the effort to select a message and click 'Delete') and risks (e.g. finding out later that you really did want the e-mail).
If I were a product manager at Google, I don't know what decision I'd make, but I would constantly be asking people WHY they want to delete e-mail. A lot of them either won't have an answer or will have some irrational reason like "I don't like all that clutter". At that point, it may be worthwhile investigating the psychology behind it instead of practicality. It could be that the "real" requirement behind the delete feature is to create some feeling of tidiness.
I can actually think of practical reasons to delete e-mail, though. The main one is if you don't want someone logging into your account and seeing certain messages.
But I'm up near 60,000 messages, and have never regretted my decision to stop deleting e-mails.
Post a Comment
Other people do seem to be quite adamant about deleting e-mail. What's funny is that those same people sometimes come crawling back to me, asking me if I have a copy of an e-mail they deleted.
Why not delete unwanted e-mail? Because there clearly are costs (e.g. taking the effort to select a message and click 'Delete') and risks (e.g. finding out later that you really did want the e-mail).
If I were a product manager at Google, I don't know what decision I'd make, but I would constantly be asking people WHY they want to delete e-mail. A lot of them either won't have an answer or will have some irrational reason like "I don't like all that clutter". At that point, it may be worthwhile investigating the psychology behind it instead of practicality. It could be that the "real" requirement behind the delete feature is to create some feeling of tidiness.
I can actually think of practical reasons to delete e-mail, though. The main one is if you don't want someone logging into your account and seeing certain messages.
But I'm up near 60,000 messages, and have never regretted my decision to stop deleting e-mails.
Links to this post:
<< Home
