5 ms·

I work at Google, though not in the Bay Area, in Maps, and we recently had a program where every engineer was encouraged to participate in a user study on featu

I work at Google, though not in the Bay Area, in Maps, and we recently had a program where every engineer was encouraged to participate in a user study on features they worked on. The goal was just watch regular people sit down and use the product, see what they liked, see what they didn't, and build some more user-empathy. I found this pretty awkward, but rewarding, and have let it help guide my personal prioritization. In this case, having a few anecdotes was a lot more powerful than the dry aggregated data.

batter 9y ago
When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. Especially while driving. But at least it's better than YouTube + Chromecast bundle.
- brownbat 9y ago
  It gives me that same feeling that people aren't using their product, but mostly about whoever designed the roads in DC. (I would like nav to notice every time I miss a turn it recommends, and if it's common for people to miss specific turns, take a closer look at what's going on there without requiring a user report. Maybe they already do this, I don't know.)
  - pwinnski 9y ago
    Oh man! I would love for any mapping app to notice that I always exit the Dallas North Tollway at Plano Parkway rather than Park Boulevard, because they're very close, but the Plano Parkway exit is free. I do the same thing when it wants me to merge onto the President George Bush Turnpike and immediately take the Midway Road exit. Again, Plano Parkway means one more stoplight (or two, in the case of Midway), but is a free exit. I do it over and over and over again, and yet every mapping app insists that I save a couple of seconds at the expense of 60 cents. Or maybe spend a few seconds extra at the expense of 60 seconds, depending on how luck or unlucky I am with the traffic signals. In general, I'd love it if mapping apps wouldn't just say "this route includes tolls," but rather "this route includes tolls of $5.10" or however much, so I could decide whether saving 11 minutes is worth it. But at least I wish they would notice that I always, always exist at Plano Parkway.
    - vertex-four 9y ago
      Google Maps in the U.K. has an “avoid tolls” option.
      - doppelganger27 9y ago
        Google Maps in the U.S. has the avoid tolls option as well. I'm not the poster that previously brought up this issue, but I'm happy to use a toll road if it saves me significant time. It would be nice if I could set a threshold to say "only use toll roads if it'll save me X minutes," or something similar.
      - pwinnski 9y ago
        I don't necessarily want to avoid all tolls. I want to avoid a toll plaza that costs 50 cents to save me a single traffic light.
    - reaperducer 9y ago
      >But at least I wish they would notice that I always, always exist at Plano Parkway. Google can track your shopping habits, your surfing habits, your eating habits, your viewing habits, and probably more habits than we know about. But somehow driving the same route five sevenths of the week eludes it.
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    > (I would like nav to notice every time I miss a turn it recommends, and if it's common for people to miss specific turns, take a closer look at what's going on there without requiring a user report. Maybe they already do this, I don't know.) Man, this would be a great project for the Boston area also. The constant name-changes and lane alterations within what humans would call "the same road" give Google Maps fits. It's painfully common to hear "take the left lane..." and then suddenly get "using the right lane, turn right" when you've got 500 feet left and ten lanes to cross. Or, even more simply, to hear "turn left" and see 4-5 different left options. Google's definitions of "gentle" and "sharp" leave a lot to be desired. It's not Google's fault, exactly - the roads here are an absolute mess - but it's certainly something they could do better with. I'm willing to bet the same mistakes happen at the same intersections hundreds of times a day.
    - brownbat 9y ago
      I really want to see the first city (or more likely, small campus) where only autonomous vehicles are allowed to drive. I don't know whether roads would become far more orderly, or if there would just be an plaza with every vehicle zipping past each other at weird angles. Maybe it'd be this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIthEM6pDqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIthEM6pDqw
    - reaperducer 9y ago
      > It's not Google's fault, exactly - the roads here are an absolute mess It's Google's fault for deploying a product that isn't up to the task for which it is promoted. But that's not unique to Google. You just have to look at Apple earbuds to see another example of "Works in Silicon Valley, so it must be fine everywhere else, too."
- seanhunter 9y ago
  I'm absolutely convinced that noone in Youtube uses 1)Youtube's search function (how can a company that is famous for search have such a completely terrible search at the heart of one of their main products?) 2)Subscriptions (how come they think that subscribing to a feed means "sometimes tell me when there's an update, sometimes don't"?. Can't conceive of them thinking that if they actually used them)
  - delecti 9y ago
    There's a subscription page that (as far as I've ever seen) always shows me all new videos from all of my subscriptions. I'm so confused whenever I hear people make that complaint, because other than times when Youtube as a whole is inaccessible for some reason, I've never experienced anything like it. Where are you going that you're not seeing all of your subscribed channels' videos? This is the page I mentioned, and I don't know where else to see subscribed videos. Is there some place that doesn't show them all in this format? https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
    - Izkata 9y ago
      They're talking about email alerts. Those don't include every video. Personally, I find them rather useless as they often tell me about videos I'd already seen a week before from the subscriptions page.
      - reaperducer 9y ago
        Not necessarily email alerts. When I look at YouTube on my AppleTV, in the subscriptions area it'll show me videos from 5 years ago listed first, and videos from a few days ago buried among a bunch of unrelated videos from channels to which I'm not even subscribed.
  - samstave 9y ago
    Agreed. YouTube is a mess right now. For example, if I go to see the latest clip from last nights various late night shows, it might show me one clip, then everything else is old or completely unrelated to my search. I even uploaded two videos to my account, but only one of them shows up in my account. The other is there via direct link, but even when I’m logged in as me, it doesn’t show up at all. Further, whomever created “G Suite” either hates users or is the worst product manager ever. I bought a domain from google and added g suite for that domain. It tied the domain to my personal gmail account, and it confuses which account services are tied to: now when I send an email from the new domain’s g suite gmail: any replies to those sent emails return to BoTH!! My personal gmail AND the new gmail account??? They have menu item that are inexplicably non-clickable. The links to things are black and thus not intuitively obvious they are links and a range of other problems. You have to manage some items through your gmail, the other gmail, admin.google, domains.google etc it’s a freaking nightmare!
- cryptoz 9y ago
  > When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. I have this feeling all the time with Maps. I remember distinctly a time in Boston when I was almost late for a meeting. I was running down the street looking for the office building (first time in town) and using Maps to find my way. But Maps wouldn't let me look at a map. At all. It decided that "shake to provide feedback" was far more important and as I was in a rush down the street, was interrupted every 1-2 seconds by a huge popup in Maps, preventing me from using the product at all when I needed it. Yes, I know the setting can be turned off. But what kind of default setting is that? Don't let the user use your product? Pretty sure nobody in the Android Maps team had let the office building once before that feature was shipped. It simply rendered the product unusable. Edit: I don't mean to detract from the product. It's an incredible product. Obviously. But it has simple flaws that seem clear if you use Maps for even 1 day as a regular person.
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    Maps has been increasingly awful about trying to help when it shouldn't. Features like 'warn about location closure' and 'recenter screen after accidental touches' are great, but they're so aggressive that simple tasks like "let me scroll over and see where I'm going" involve consciously trying to outwit the UI. It sort of feels like there's user testing or datagathering showing all false positive errors ("they bumped it then had to hit recenter"), but no data being counted up to see the false negatives ("they scrolled 15 times as undid each action").
    - reaperducer 9y ago
      >Maps has been increasingly awful about trying to help when it shouldn't. A lot of Google products seem to be competing to become the new Clippy.
      - nugi 9y ago
        They are shooting for the MS BOB experince.
  - 9y ago
- reaperducer 9y ago
  > When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. Especially while driving. But at least it's better than YouTube + Chromecast bundle. This is true. Using YouTube+Chomecast has never worked for me when driving. Once I ended up in a lake!

batter 9y ago

When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. Especially while driving. But at least it's better than YouTube + Chromecast bundle.

brownbat 9y ago
It gives me that same feeling that people aren't using their product, but mostly about whoever designed the roads in DC. (I would like nav to notice every time I miss a turn it recommends, and if it's common for people to miss specific turns, take a closer look at what's going on there without requiring a user report. Maybe they already do this, I don't know.)
- pwinnski 9y ago
  Oh man! I would love for any mapping app to notice that I always exit the Dallas North Tollway at Plano Parkway rather than Park Boulevard, because they're very close, but the Plano Parkway exit is free. I do the same thing when it wants me to merge onto the President George Bush Turnpike and immediately take the Midway Road exit. Again, Plano Parkway means one more stoplight (or two, in the case of Midway), but is a free exit. I do it over and over and over again, and yet every mapping app insists that I save a couple of seconds at the expense of 60 cents. Or maybe spend a few seconds extra at the expense of 60 seconds, depending on how luck or unlucky I am with the traffic signals. In general, I'd love it if mapping apps wouldn't just say "this route includes tolls," but rather "this route includes tolls of $5.10" or however much, so I could decide whether saving 11 minutes is worth it. But at least I wish they would notice that I always, always exist at Plano Parkway.
  - vertex-four 9y ago
    Google Maps in the U.K. has an “avoid tolls” option.
    - doppelganger27 9y ago
      Google Maps in the U.S. has the avoid tolls option as well. I'm not the poster that previously brought up this issue, but I'm happy to use a toll road if it saves me significant time. It would be nice if I could set a threshold to say "only use toll roads if it'll save me X minutes," or something similar.
    - pwinnski 9y ago
      I don't necessarily want to avoid all tolls. I want to avoid a toll plaza that costs 50 cents to save me a single traffic light.
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    >But at least I wish they would notice that I always, always exist at Plano Parkway. Google can track your shopping habits, your surfing habits, your eating habits, your viewing habits, and probably more habits than we know about. But somehow driving the same route five sevenths of the week eludes it.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  > (I would like nav to notice every time I miss a turn it recommends, and if it's common for people to miss specific turns, take a closer look at what's going on there without requiring a user report. Maybe they already do this, I don't know.) Man, this would be a great project for the Boston area also. The constant name-changes and lane alterations within what humans would call "the same road" give Google Maps fits. It's painfully common to hear "take the left lane..." and then suddenly get "using the right lane, turn right" when you've got 500 feet left and ten lanes to cross. Or, even more simply, to hear "turn left" and see 4-5 different left options. Google's definitions of "gentle" and "sharp" leave a lot to be desired. It's not Google's fault, exactly - the roads here are an absolute mess - but it's certainly something they could do better with. I'm willing to bet the same mistakes happen at the same intersections hundreds of times a day.
  - brownbat 9y ago
    I really want to see the first city (or more likely, small campus) where only autonomous vehicles are allowed to drive. I don't know whether roads would become far more orderly, or if there would just be an plaza with every vehicle zipping past each other at weird angles. Maybe it'd be this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIthEM6pDqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIthEM6pDqw
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    > It's not Google's fault, exactly - the roads here are an absolute mess It's Google's fault for deploying a product that isn't up to the task for which it is promoted. But that's not unique to Google. You just have to look at Apple earbuds to see another example of "Works in Silicon Valley, so it must be fine everywhere else, too."
seanhunter 9y ago
I'm absolutely convinced that noone in Youtube uses 1)Youtube's search function (how can a company that is famous for search have such a completely terrible search at the heart of one of their main products?) 2)Subscriptions (how come they think that subscribing to a feed means "sometimes tell me when there's an update, sometimes don't"?. Can't conceive of them thinking that if they actually used them)
- delecti 9y ago
  There's a subscription page that (as far as I've ever seen) always shows me all new videos from all of my subscriptions. I'm so confused whenever I hear people make that complaint, because other than times when Youtube as a whole is inaccessible for some reason, I've never experienced anything like it. Where are you going that you're not seeing all of your subscribed channels' videos? This is the page I mentioned, and I don't know where else to see subscribed videos. Is there some place that doesn't show them all in this format? https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions
  - Izkata 9y ago
    They're talking about email alerts. Those don't include every video. Personally, I find them rather useless as they often tell me about videos I'd already seen a week before from the subscriptions page.
    - reaperducer 9y ago
      Not necessarily email alerts. When I look at YouTube on my AppleTV, in the subscriptions area it'll show me videos from 5 years ago listed first, and videos from a few days ago buried among a bunch of unrelated videos from channels to which I'm not even subscribed.
- samstave 9y ago
  Agreed. YouTube is a mess right now. For example, if I go to see the latest clip from last nights various late night shows, it might show me one clip, then everything else is old or completely unrelated to my search. I even uploaded two videos to my account, but only one of them shows up in my account. The other is there via direct link, but even when I’m logged in as me, it doesn’t show up at all. Further, whomever created “G Suite” either hates users or is the worst product manager ever. I bought a domain from google and added g suite for that domain. It tied the domain to my personal gmail account, and it confuses which account services are tied to: now when I send an email from the new domain’s g suite gmail: any replies to those sent emails return to BoTH!! My personal gmail AND the new gmail account??? They have menu item that are inexplicably non-clickable. The links to things are black and thus not intuitively obvious they are links and a range of other problems. You have to manage some items through your gmail, the other gmail, admin.google, domains.google etc it’s a freaking nightmare!
cryptoz 9y ago
> When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. I have this feeling all the time with Maps. I remember distinctly a time in Boston when I was almost late for a meeting. I was running down the street looking for the office building (first time in town) and using Maps to find my way. But Maps wouldn't let me look at a map. At all. It decided that "shake to provide feedback" was far more important and as I was in a rush down the street, was interrupted every 1-2 seconds by a huge popup in Maps, preventing me from using the product at all when I needed it. Yes, I know the setting can be turned off. But what kind of default setting is that? Don't let the user use your product? Pretty sure nobody in the Android Maps team had let the office building once before that feature was shipped. It simply rendered the product unusable. Edit: I don't mean to detract from the product. It's an incredible product. Obviously. But it has simple flaws that seem clear if you use Maps for even 1 day as a regular person.
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  Maps has been increasingly awful about trying to help when it shouldn't. Features like 'warn about location closure' and 'recenter screen after accidental touches' are great, but they're so aggressive that simple tasks like "let me scroll over and see where I'm going" involve consciously trying to outwit the UI. It sort of feels like there's user testing or datagathering showing all false positive errors ("they bumped it then had to hit recenter"), but no data being counted up to see the false negatives ("they scrolled 15 times as undid each action").
  - reaperducer 9y ago
    >Maps has been increasingly awful about trying to help when it shouldn't. A lot of Google products seem to be competing to become the new Clippy.
    - nugi 9y ago
      They are shooting for the MS BOB experince.
- 9y ago
reaperducer 9y ago
> When i'm using Google Maps, sometimes i have a feeling that you're not using the product you have produced. Especially while driving. But at least it's better than YouTube + Chromecast bundle. This is true. Using YouTube+Chomecast has never worked for me when driving. Once I ended up in a lake!