Perhaps a smart long-term play for Google, but one that, today, looks different, feels broken, and leaves the visual brand with some re-introducing to do when users suddenly can’t find what they’re looking for.
Google broke the bridge when they redefined the experience.
Creating intuitive, recognizable products is important. It’s everything. And much of what makes something feel intuitive is developed through previous experiences. It doesn’t mean you need to copycat yourself to death or that you can’t evolve but do so aware of its effect and maybe post a detour notice or leave crumbs out for folks to follow.
2. Empowering Users (to do what you wanted)
Anticipate expectations.
Deliver on them.
Create joy.
That’s the equation for effective marketing.
In 2020, we have access to the data that truly matters to help us more easily solve that equation—intel that tells us:
- Features/services people like
- What they don’t like
- Where they spend their time on site or in app
- Their actions and priorities
Helpful for a laundry list of reasons, of course, but also because it tells us how our audience demands that something work. It tells us:
Whether they expect a button to be on the right, the left, or in the center.
What they expect to happen when they swipe or click or hover.
How navigation should be named and where it should lead them.
All of this can be used to plot the most desired user experience. Where all the elements are left in familiar places, using the right language, and where they didn’t even notice the path because it was quite simply the one they wanted.
When you obscure the path, that's when they get mad.
Your customers dictate the experience, not you. Let data lead decision-making related to UI and customer journey improvements. Data. Not hunches nor someone’s good idea. Learning and understanding your audiences' behaviors will help you refine your UI and the experience that you’re creating.
3. Our Internal Bridges
"We need to break down these walls." "Get rid of the siloes."
Whatever your organization, you’ve probably heard it. People are obsessed with silo-crushing. I’m not.
My guy Chris, the guy who can talk circles around everyone else in the room on neuroscience and why people do the things they do, I want him in his silo. That's where he's most dangerous.
My buddy Jeremy. A favorite human of mine and one of the most talented designers I've ever known…I don’t want him out of his silo. If you've worked with him at Overit, you don't either. You want him to dig deeper because you know he’s going to knock your socks off every time.
Don’t hate the silo. Build a better bridge.
A bridge that allows people to excel where they excel, while carving a path for knowledge to flow. Because that’s really what we’re after. We want people to connect to ensure internal alignment and that we're all moving toward the same goal.
We want them:
- To take a walk and become part of a team outside their own.
- To connect departments and resources so we’re working from the same information set.
- To open up meetings so more people can play and participate.
- To find ways to move further, faster.
When you tell people to leave their silos, I’m not sure they know what to do with that. I never did. Leave what, go where? No way.
When you encourage someone to build a bridge, you better define their experience and empower them to do what you want them to do. You got it. Plot your internal journeys the way you plot external ones.
The strongest bridges are the ones you didn’t realize you took. You simply started walking and ended up where you needed to go, automagically, never breaking you out of your moment or demanding your attention.
It’s only later we realize how special those experiences truly are. And scramble to recreate them.
