Several days ago I had a quite insightful discussion about software functionality and usability. Among others we went through Google Spreadsheets and features which should be on the top priorities in a team working on that project.
Maybe I’m a bit controversial here, but I think Google Docs are in the point where there’s a lot of toilsome and dull work ahead. The thing which should be improved now is generally an editing area. I don’t say it doesn’t work. On the very basic level it works well. However, quite a few of us use the very basic features only. When asked, no one would really answer consciously which “advanced editing features” he uses, but after a couple of hours of playing with the application most of us will find a series of small but annoying flaws. These are non-standard features we use.
Highlight B2 and C5 cells. Only those two. Mark a group of numbers to quickly check their sum on a status bar. Change text or background color of cells with only one click. Mark several columns with shift+left-click. Make some simple formula using keyboard, e.g. type “=sum(“ and move to cells you want to sum using arrows. Doesn’t work.
Yawn. Boring. Nothing about on-line collaboration. Nothing about Google Gears (although I believe that’s another extremely important area). Nothing about adding advanced cool features like pivot table. But all that boring work is something what disheartens users when it isn’t done properly. Typical user who tries out Google Spreadsheet is the one who is familiar with Microsoft Office. The one who is familiar with ways she uses Microsoft Office, to be exact. As far as she doesn’t find similar (and working) paths in new spreadsheet she won’t be happy with it. And she won’t stick with it as a consequence.
Yes, when you’re able to keep the user and show him your unique features (collaboration in that case) and make him thinking about them as key functionalities – you’ve won. Unfortunately in most cases you won’t reach that point because few stages earlier the user becomes annoyed with the new software and goes back to old, well-known Microsoft Office telling all his friends: “Oh, that was cool, but sooo immature.”
By the way, similar problem we face in Overto. After first stage of rapid development we have on one hand a bunch of great ideas how to expand the service with new functionalities, but on the other there’s a lot of work to do within the basics: availability, performance and usability. With heavy heart I choose the latter.
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