A friend of mine believes that a lot of sites and companies are now using the g+ button more than the f one that has taken the online social sphere by storm since its inception. Who will take over as the king here, I don't know.
What facebook had over the others (at the time Hi5, Friendster, MySpace, etc) according to me was their simple interface. I disliked MySpace totally for the lack of ease-of-use, and Hi5 and MySpace was okay. Facebook has shown its agility in trying out things and improving their interfaces very quickly (discounting a few bad experiments). It would be anyone's guess that Google would not fall behind in that! The current Gmail interface is useful and the G+ interface got a makeover recently too. However, I am not too happy with it!
Most of what I go over next will refer to this diagram below, where I've marked the areas on the Google Plus page as Main Area, Chat, Circle/Not-in-Circle, and Choices. Click on it to view a larger version.
Focusing on the Main thing
My first point of discomfort, is that the main area sits on the left. Many websites center their content, as that aligns more with where the viewer is probably sitting. With widescreen-equipped laptops, this gets worse. With the Cirlces-bar on its right, combined with the Chat portion, the main area seem to occupy very little space here. The Chat part is static - it doesn't scroll, but the Circles bar does. So, once you scroll down a little, there is an emptiness beside the main area. That makes me wonder, exactly how important that bit of information about who is/isn't in my circles actually is to the user. In the Choices bar, you have an option to edit your Circles, and this info could easily go in there, or in the notifications panels.
Choices
I also wonder if the Choices bar could've rested better on the right hand side. One of my theories is that since I use the mouse or trackpad with my right hand, it feels like I am going a long way to access those options. (I wonder if its the opposite for left-handed computer users. Never really noticed. A bit disgraceful that I didn't).
A Shuffle?
One recommendation, would be to shuffle things about a bit:
Choices - Move to just left of the Chat bar
Circles - Move to the far right, but modify it too - Coming after the next image.
Main - While doing the shuffle, why not make it a bit wider?!
If the left hand list of circles could be used to filter the feeds from all the contacts, then that'd be a nifty little feature. This is a quick shuffle to see if the usability of the plus interface can be improved. Use of colors here could also emphasize the options on a single post, or the area where the feeds are coming. The use of subdued colors is a bit too much on the page.
Usability is just one aspect of a software. Unfortunately, if we think of Google Plus as being up against Facebook, many other factors need to be considered. Plus doesn't put advertisements around us, but the ones on Facebook aren't actually a bother. Facebook has lots of Apps - is that a plus?! Then if my friend is right, Plus is finally getting the backing of the online community. Thats the number one thing in this market. As I was telling another friend, if all my friends decided to hang out in Cafe A, its no use if I ended up in Cafe B!
What facebook had over the others (at the time Hi5, Friendster, MySpace, etc) according to me was their simple interface. I disliked MySpace totally for the lack of ease-of-use, and Hi5 and MySpace was okay. Facebook has shown its agility in trying out things and improving their interfaces very quickly (discounting a few bad experiments). It would be anyone's guess that Google would not fall behind in that! The current Gmail interface is useful and the G+ interface got a makeover recently too. However, I am not too happy with it!
Most of what I go over next will refer to this diagram below, where I've marked the areas on the Google Plus page as Main Area, Chat, Circle/Not-in-Circle, and Choices. Click on it to view a larger version.
My first point of discomfort, is that the main area sits on the left. Many websites center their content, as that aligns more with where the viewer is probably sitting. With widescreen-equipped laptops, this gets worse. With the Cirlces-bar on its right, combined with the Chat portion, the main area seem to occupy very little space here. The Chat part is static - it doesn't scroll, but the Circles bar does. So, once you scroll down a little, there is an emptiness beside the main area. That makes me wonder, exactly how important that bit of information about who is/isn't in my circles actually is to the user. In the Choices bar, you have an option to edit your Circles, and this info could easily go in there, or in the notifications panels.
Choices
I also wonder if the Choices bar could've rested better on the right hand side. One of my theories is that since I use the mouse or trackpad with my right hand, it feels like I am going a long way to access those options. (I wonder if its the opposite for left-handed computer users. Never really noticed. A bit disgraceful that I didn't).
A Shuffle?
One recommendation, would be to shuffle things about a bit:
Choices - Move to just left of the Chat bar
Circles - Move to the far right, but modify it too - Coming after the next image.
Main - While doing the shuffle, why not make it a bit wider?!
If the left hand list of circles could be used to filter the feeds from all the contacts, then that'd be a nifty little feature. This is a quick shuffle to see if the usability of the plus interface can be improved. Use of colors here could also emphasize the options on a single post, or the area where the feeds are coming. The use of subdued colors is a bit too much on the page.
Usability is just one aspect of a software. Unfortunately, if we think of Google Plus as being up against Facebook, many other factors need to be considered. Plus doesn't put advertisements around us, but the ones on Facebook aren't actually a bother. Facebook has lots of Apps - is that a plus?! Then if my friend is right, Plus is finally getting the backing of the online community. Thats the number one thing in this market. As I was telling another friend, if all my friends decided to hang out in Cafe A, its no use if I ended up in Cafe B!
