Yesterday the Official Google Blog announced the end of Google Wave. I am not surprised. As an early and enthusiastic
adopter of all things Google, I didn’t know quite what to do with it. There seemed to be a lot going on in the user interface, but I found myself just staring at it and wondering where to start or what I was missing. I made three visits to the wave after my first login. Nothing changed.
If your tool isn’t easy to use right away, users may not mess with it after several minutes of exploring it. Make it simple and make it easy. Add features later as users get used to it. Or lead the users down a workflow that is memorable, highlighting features along the way, while giving them reasons to do so. Give users a way to toggle the “guidance” off after they are on their feet.
Looking forward to Google’s next application. May it be easy to adopt and use.
