If you are feeling excited about Google Android, maybe you should check out this video (embedded below) of its interface in action before rushing out to pick up the imminent HTC Dream.  Quite frankly, the interface really needs some work.  Compare the time taken to zoom in and out of web pages on the Android Device to performing the same task on the iPhone.  Also compare the clustering of icons on the home screen, with minimum spacing between them.  Given some people have complained about the iPhone’s icons being not spaced enough, they are unlikely to find any relief with the first Android phone.

Of course, it’s early days and we’re yet to get our hands on a proper handset.  Google have also tried their best to create as open a platform as possible, so much of the initial problems can be ironed out.  But comparing early Android footage to early iPhone footage, there’s no real competition here.

As a rule, I only use WordPress themes that I’ve designed myself.  This is for a number of reasons, but mostly because I feel it gives me a better sense of ownership over the blog.  I also like to add some custom functionality to the blogs I run and always feel safer when I know how the theme works, in case something goes wrong or I have to make changes.  There’s also something to be said for uniqueness in the highly competitive world of blogging.

So with all that in my mind, I’ve started thinking about a theme for this blog.  Seeing as this is a blog about usability, the theme is going to be as usable as possible.  That’s going to be the prime focus.  In order to do that, I’m going to do some fairly heavy research into structuring and displaying content, typography and readability.  I want it to be as near to perfect in terms of usability as possible.  And seeing as I’m big on sharing, I’ll be posting about the process, progress and results in due course.

Out of this process I expect to produce: -

1. A set of guidelines that can be applied to information sites, and specifically blogs on the best way to structure and display information.
2. Best practices on typography for as near as ideal readability.
3. A framework for WordPress themes that can be adapted and used by others, with the lessons learnt in the above two steps engrained within it.
4. A new theme for The Usability Blog.

As you can see, it’s not a one step process.  I want to lay the groundwork, the foundations, that can be used again by myself and others.  I’m not going to build this house on sand.  And for those of you wondering, I’ve developed a number WordPress themes in the past, and written a number of articles on the subject.  I also plan on launching a WordPress themes site to support my theme development shortly.  So there’s alot going on!

Disclaimer

Before I get any further, I want to point two things out.  Firstly, Google Chrome is a very early beta product.  It’s not ready for your Gran to use yet, it may not be ready for you to use yet, depending on your disposition. So tread carefully.  And let’s take this as an IR beta, and not a Google beta.  I don’t expect it to be flawless, neither should you.

Secondly, I’m an OSX user (you’ll find that many people in the field of user experience favor Macs).  As such I’m testing Chrome on an iMac through Parallels Desktop which is running a Win XP Pro Virtual Machine.  Results are indicative of this setup.

Breaking Conventions

Google seem intent on breaking some well established conventions with Chrome.  We’ve seen with the iPhone that breaking established conventions can be a liberating thing, something that frees designers from the shackles of the past and allows them to come up with something truly great.  There is, of course, a downside. Unless your new interface is truly intuitive, which is very difficult to do in an IT system, there’s going to be a steeper learning curve than usual.  There’s also going to be mistakes and failures.  And when you knowingly introduce failures and mistakes, you run the risk of user abandonment.  Sometimes this will be abandonment of a task, but in cases like Chrome, and the iPhone, it will be abandonment of the tool.

Interface Differences between Chrome and FireFox 3

The image to the right highlights some of the differences you will notice between Chrome and a more conventional browser, in this case I’ve used FireFox version 3 on Windows XP in vanilla form.

I’ll be addressing each of these differences in turn.

Standard OS Interface Elements

Something that’s been a pet peeve of mine over the years has been where applications choose to change some interface elements that are intended to be common throughout the Operating System’s interface.

Unfortunately, this is something Google has chosen to do with Chrome.  You’ll notice in the top right hand corner of the Chrome window that it appears to be using Windows Vista interface elements, even though it was running on Windows XP. Is this important? Yes.  The problem here is not that it is using Vista’s icons, but more that it is not obeying any customisations made by the user.  For example, I know users who have poor eyesight, they tend to increase the size of these controls so they can easily minimise windows without accidentally closing them.

Window Controls in Chrome and FireFox

If you enlarge these controls through Windows XP, the controls on Chrome do not change.  It’s also worth noting that the buttons don’t have the characteristic coloration that controls on other windows do, this is also likely to confuse less experienced users.

To some users, the large red button that closes the window has now become the small blue button, but only for Google Chrome.  And that last point really is key.  Google Chrome performs differently to the rest of the OS.  It’s the one car in the showroom with the steering wheel on the roof.

State-Sensitive Objects

You’ll see on the screenshot earlier in this post that I’ve highlighted the status bar and the tab bar in Chrome.  The reason I’ve singled these two elements out is that they behave inconsistently.  The status bar only becomes visible when there’s something to display, and it works fairly well.  Essentially, it only shows up when you mouse over a link (to display the destination URL) or when the page is still loading.  It’s working on the principal that at all other times, there really is nothing interesting that needs to be fed back to the user, so there’s no need to eat up valuable screen space and display extra interface elements that may confuse users.

What’s more interesting is the approach to tabs.  Unlike FireFox, Google Chrome always displays the tab bar, regardless of how many tabs you have open.  FireFox hides the tab bar if only one tab is open.  In Chrome, the result is that you have a state-sensitive status bar (i.e. the status bar only displays when the browser is in a certain state) and a tab bar that is not state-sensitive.  This is likely down to the push by Google to emphasise the tabbed aspects of Chrome.  It’s a selling point, something they want to push, so I suspect the decision to keep the tab bar constantly visible was taken with more a marketing hat on, rather than a UI one.

Personally, I’m ambivalent about this.  I feel it warrants being pointed out, but it’s not a huge issue.  Just a difference that people need to be made aware of.

Auto Feed Discovery

As highlighted in the image towards the top of this post, Google Chrome does not feature automatic feed discovery.  This seems like a strange choice given that Google runs one of the most popular Feed Reading services on the planet, Google Reader, as well as the hugely popular FeedBurner.  Whether this is a feature that’s yet to be implemented, or something that’s been intentionally omitted in the name of simplicity remains to be seen.  But it would appear that yet another common interface element is gone, at least for now.

Miscellany

There are a few other things that I just briefly wanted to mention that doesn’t fit in with the “breaking conventions” theme of this post.  So consider this a miscellaneous section.

Task Manager

Google Chrome Task Manager

I have a real issue with my browser requiring its own Task Manager and it seems strange that Google are pushing this as a feature.  Windows Mobile has been mocked repeatedly for it’s use of a Task Manager, in fact Apple referenced it in a keynote about the iPhone, that’s how laughable the feature is.  The reason it doesn’t work is that Windows Mobile runs on mobile devices.  People don’t want to manage their mobile devices, they just want them to work.

I think Web browsers are similar.  My browser is a gateway to services, in the same way a phone is a gateway to a service.  The best browser, much like the best phone, is the one that allows me to most easily access and make use of the service I am trying to connect to and utilise.  Making me consider things like memory and resource usage is not going to achieve that, I just don’t want to think about it.  I want my browser to just handle that back end stuff, and leave me get on with what I want to do.

Options

The Options available in Chrome

Another of my pet peeves is options.  Many applications have many different ways of structuring and organising options.  Currently there are very few options available in Chrome, which isn’t a bad thing.  I’d personally like to see more customisation opportunities, and it is required before it becomes mainstream, but at the moment it’s fine.

What’s not fine is the structure, grouping, wording and logic of the existing options.  I won’t go into any details, as I could spend an entire post on it, but it needs a complete overhaul.

Have you been using Chrome?  If so, what do you think?  If not, why not?

Of course, it’s not all bad news.  There are also some examples of really excellent usability.  Interfaces that excel at providing user experiences.  These also need to be highlighted so that we can all learn from them.

This blog aims to document both excellent and terrible examples of usability while guiding developers, designers and owners on best practice.

I’ll start adding content immediately, but expect a new look for the blog in the next couple of weeks.