3 ms·

The reason the new design is so much worse is that it uses the most valuable space on the screen, the left side (since we read left to right), for stuff users d

by pg 17y ago

The reason the new design is so much worse is that it uses the most valuable space on the screen, the left side (since we read left to right), for stuff users don't care much about. What users care about most on a page of search results is the search results. Those should get priority. Instead the prime space is given to stuff that's boilerplate, or only tangentially relevant, or both. I'm surprised Google would make a mistake of such magnitude. Anyone who's read Tufte would know not to do this. They've effectively reduced the data-ink ratio of the page, when you weight each pixel by its proximity to the upper left corner. http://www.infovis-wiki.net/index.php/Data-Ink_Ratio http://www.infovis-wiki.net/index.php/Data-Ink_Ratio http://inspiredimpressions.files.wordpress.com/2006/04/Google%20heat%20map.jpg http://inspiredimpressions.files.wordpress.com/2006/04/Googl... Oddly enough, it would actually be better if the left bar were entirely boilerplate, because that would make it easier to tune it out. http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/eyetracking_corporate_site_about_us.png http://www.useit.com/eyetracking/eyetracking_corporate_site_... Then the new design would merely waste space. Filling the left side of the page not merely with crap, but with changing crap, is the worst case scenario.

johnrob 17y ago
Does anyone know how to get rid of this new left bar?
- plinkplonk 17y ago
  "Does anyone know how to get rid of this new left bar?" A couple of ways to do it. (1) On Firefox install the stylish plug in (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108/). Then go to http://userstyles.org/styles/29418 http://userstyles.org/styles/29418 and install the style. After installation, if you are not using google.com(say google.ca or google.co.in), edit the css (left click on icon at bottom right, select manage, select the style edit) to reflect whatever google engine you are using. (2)In Chrome the Hide Google Options addon works perfectly (http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/#Chrome http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/#Chrome). There is a firefox equivalent but for some reason it didn't work for me so I went with the above (stylish) option on FF. No idea about any other browser. Sorry. But I guess there is always GreaseMonkey?
samratjp 17y ago
I hate the left bar! Perhaps the biggest reason I never felt home with Bing, Yahoo or etc. was because of the extraneous crap (I don't need pretty pictures on my search engine homepage). Google just felt right because it was minimal yet functional and just straight on hard on the pedal fast. Sure, it is just as fast now, but it's amazing how a slight "improvement" like this has actually changed my perception of the search results being slower because it takes me a good second to realign my focus to the right. And please infovis-wiki, that criticism with just Inbar et al. seems pretty lame (their subjects were 87 students - not a good sample at all for something about perception!)
ugh 17y ago
Google actually tested this, you didn’t. So while the reasons you listed might be valid and a good reason to scrutinize the redesign with the literature in mind, I have a very hard time believing that Google didn’t do just that. I would argue that there are consequently very good reasons to believe that the problems you described are not a issue with the redesign or that there are certain advantages to the redesign which make up for other disadvantages.
- kyro 17y ago
  It has also been shown that people will be more likely to give you money with a gun to their head than when kindly asked.
- plinkplonk 17y ago
  "Google actually tested this, you didn’t. So while the reasons you listed might be valid and a good reason to scrutinize the redesign with the literature in mind, I have a very hard time believing that Google didn’t do just that." And yet it moves! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pur_si_muove! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pur_si_muove!). Google "testing it" isn't an iron clad guarantee that the feature doesn't suck. Anyone who has worked in a large company can well imagine how "tests" can support predetermined positions of higher management (say). I suspect the reason is simpler - these days Google is fat and slow and infested with mediocre MBA types who love nothing better than to "launch an initiative" like this. Never attribute to malice etc. Irrespective of how well Google tested this, if enough users say "And yet it sucks", then that's that. You could argue about how many users are "enough", but "Google tested it so they have to be right and everyone else is wrong" is a very fragile argument.
  - ugh 17y ago
    I never said anything about anything being “iron clad”. PG could be right but I think there are good reasons to believe that this redesign might work. Probably.
ivanzhao 17y ago
Tufte's data ink is too extreme in my opinion. Human perception might be too messy and complex to handled by simply mathematical calculations. User behaviors might be a more approperiate approach to evaluate the new design.
- nooneelse 17y ago
  Indeed. If something anchors our visual scanning from page to page, then doing a calculation which always takes the upper left as the best location starts to seem very odd. In the case of the redesign, I would suggest that the big text box, which the user was just looking at on the home page, might play the role of visual anchor.

by pg 17y ago

johnrob 17y ago

Does anyone know how to get rid of this new left bar?

plinkplonk 17y ago
"Does anyone know how to get rid of this new left bar?" A couple of ways to do it. (1) On Firefox install the stylish plug in (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108/). Then go to http://userstyles.org/styles/29418 http://userstyles.org/styles/29418 and install the style. After installation, if you are not using google.com(say google.ca or google.co.in), edit the css (left click on icon at bottom right, select manage, select the style edit) to reflect whatever google engine you are using. (2)In Chrome the Hide Google Options addon works perfectly (http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/#Chrome http://www.seotools.com/hide-google-options/#Chrome). There is a firefox equivalent but for some reason it didn't work for me so I went with the above (stylish) option on FF. No idea about any other browser. Sorry. But I guess there is always GreaseMonkey?

samratjp 17y ago

I hate the left bar! Perhaps the biggest reason I never felt home with Bing, Yahoo or etc. was because of the extraneous crap (I don't need pretty pictures on my search engine homepage). Google just felt right because it was minimal yet functional and just straight on hard on the pedal fast. Sure, it is just as fast now, but it's amazing how a slight "improvement" like this has actually changed my perception of the search results being slower because it takes me a good second to realign my focus to the right. And please infovis-wiki, that criticism with just Inbar et al. seems pretty lame (their subjects were 87 students - not a good sample at all for something about perception!)

ugh 17y ago

Google actually tested this, you didn’t. So while the reasons you listed might be valid and a good reason to scrutinize the redesign with the literature in mind, I have a very hard time believing that Google didn’t do just that. I would argue that there are consequently very good reasons to believe that the problems you described are not a issue with the redesign or that there are certain advantages to the redesign which make up for other disadvantages.

kyro 17y ago
It has also been shown that people will be more likely to give you money with a gun to their head than when kindly asked.
plinkplonk 17y ago
"Google actually tested this, you didn’t. So while the reasons you listed might be valid and a good reason to scrutinize the redesign with the literature in mind, I have a very hard time believing that Google didn’t do just that." And yet it moves! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pur_si_muove! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_pur_si_muove!). Google "testing it" isn't an iron clad guarantee that the feature doesn't suck. Anyone who has worked in a large company can well imagine how "tests" can support predetermined positions of higher management (say). I suspect the reason is simpler - these days Google is fat and slow and infested with mediocre MBA types who love nothing better than to "launch an initiative" like this. Never attribute to malice etc. Irrespective of how well Google tested this, if enough users say "And yet it sucks", then that's that. You could argue about how many users are "enough", but "Google tested it so they have to be right and everyone else is wrong" is a very fragile argument.
- ugh 17y ago
  I never said anything about anything being “iron clad”. PG could be right but I think there are good reasons to believe that this redesign might work. Probably.

ivanzhao 17y ago

Tufte's data ink is too extreme in my opinion. Human perception might be too messy and complex to handled by simply mathematical calculations. User behaviors might be a more approperiate approach to evaluate the new design.

nooneelse 17y ago
Indeed. If something anchors our visual scanning from page to page, then doing a calculation which always takes the upper left as the best location starts to seem very odd. In the case of the redesign, I would suggest that the big text box, which the user was just looking at on the home page, might play the role of visual anchor.