How Usability Affects Products - Part 1: Google Reader

Written August 27th, 2007 by Aaron Holbrook

Google Reader LogoI’ve been using Google Reader to handle all my RSS feeds and be my primary start page for nearly 2 years. For handling RSS feeds, I’ve found nothing better. I’ve used Netvibes, Pageflakes, Google Home, and an assortment of desktop RSS aggregators.

The one thing that keeps me coming back to Google Reader is so simple it’s laughable:

Google Reader marks items as read when you scroll past them.

That’s it. That’s the reason I won’t leave until someone else copies this functionality.

The way that it marks items as read is genius. As you use your mouse button to scroll down the list of unread items and pass an item it marks it as read. No clicking - no having to click through to the article, just pure scrolling. If you’ve ever used Google Reader you know exactly how powerful this can be.

I’ve got nearly 120 feeds with hundreds of items coming in a day, sometimes thousands. I need the easiest and most efficient way to get through that information as quickly as I can. The mouse wheel does it quickly and easily with the least amount of work on my part.

Unless someone else integrates this with their start page goodness I don’t think I’ll ever leave Google Reader.

What can we learn from this?

Simple: when designing an app, make sure that you don’t overlook how powerful the user interface can truly be. It doesn’t mean squat if people can’t use it easily and conveniently.

Do some user testing. Find where people get caught up, and where they really fly. See what they like, and what could be improved.

Sometimes the simplest things can determine whether or not people use it.

-Aaron Holbrook is the Webmaster for Centegra Health System.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 8:33 am and is filed under Aaron Holbrook, Web Design, google, rss, usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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One Response to “How Usability Affects Products - Part 1: Google Reader”

  1. Ed Bennett Says:
    August 27th, 2007 at 10:43 am

    Aaron, I’ve been using Bloglines for the past two years, but it’s time to give Google Reader a try. I’m very happy with Bloglines, especially the just released beta, and currently subscribe to over 150 feeds.

    However, as publishers we need to see how our feeds perform on a variety of tools, and Google Reader is certainly worth trying. I also like that third-party add-ons are being developed to enhance its usability. Here’s one list:

    http://mashable.com/2007/08/23/google-reader-firefox/

    Thanks,

    Ed

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