[Sigia-l] Google's new home page

[Jonathan Baker-Bates]

What do we think?

http://tinyurl.com/yfxdjnl

I can see where they are coming from ("Keep it simple! Less is more!"),
but I don't understand why they've actually done it unless there's some
business benefit for them. They seem to be assuming that because people
know about the links in the top left and the submit buttons, etc. they
can be initially hidden from view for the sake of some more of that
atavistic "simplicity."

Doesn't this have a rather obvious problem though? Hiding things from
view can be OK if you allow them to be revealed by an explicit action
(eg a "see more" link), but if that action is potentially associated
with doing something *else* (like preparing to type into a field) then
you're effectively ensuring that they will never be seen. This is
particularly true if you look down at the keyboard when you start
typing.

Or am I at the wrong level here? Are they going to use this technique to
emphasise new stuff instead? New Google Labs features and exhortations
to download Chrome could therefore get prime position before the reveal,
for instance. 

I wonder though. It feels to me a bit like the BBC's ill-fated "Glass
Wall" design for their home page a number of years ago. Seemed like a
great idea at first...

Either way, as a discreet bit of interaction design, it'll be
interesting to see how widely it will be copied, and to what effect (and
fun to spot the cargo cults along the way).

Jonathan