The Usability of Chrome

Have you seen Google’s new open source browser, Chrome? As with all things Googlish, the fine Googlers have released a beta version of a new browser that is supposed to simplify and eliminate annoying extras (chrome) that come with other browsers to provide users with a better experience.

Google (being the speed freaks they are) also tell us that Chrome is faster than other browsers, which should be helpful from a usability standpoint. And being good Netizens they’ve made the whole thing open source so that any developers anywhere can play with it to introduce all sorts of cool add-ons and such.

Finally, Chrome introduces some pretty significant changes in browser features, including tabs that can be grabbed and moved, either inside the existing Chrome browser, or off of the current browser entirely to make a whole new browser. Another new feature is the single search and Address bar, which they call the Omnibox. Pretty cool hunh? Or might it be confusing, if you’re one of the old fashioned set that looks for a bar called “Search” to type things into.

The Usability of Chrome:

So I downloaded and tried out Chrome, and I was fairly impressed with some of the new features, it certainly is a different user experience versus some other browsers. I’m curious however what types of usability testing went into it to get it to this point. Google says Chrome has been in the works for 2 years, so I’m fairly certain that there must have been several iterations along the way, perhaps stimulated from user response.

How Would You Usability Test Chrome?

So my question to you is, if you had to put together a usability test of Chrome, to evaluate how well it works for users and how it stacks up against the competition in performance, what would you do? Since the address and search boxes are now combined, would you test functions such as searching for specific keywords or keyterms along with typical browser functions? Would you time how long it takes to find a specific web page? Would you evaluate the ease-of-use and performance of some of the key functions of the new browser? And what about accessibility issues, such as changing fonts?

Usability Testing Combined Applications:

It’s interesting to consider how a usability test of two what used to be separate functions (in this case the search box and the address box) can be performed in one test. The evaluation method used and the success or failure of the tasks being conducted are probably similar in this case, but that may not always be the case. Since the same box now will be used to conduct two different tasks, the real question may be; does this cause the user initial confusion, enough that it disrupts the user experience, or is it so obvious and self-evident that any initial confusion is easily overcome with usage?

Will Chrome Tarnish With Usage?

It will be interesting to watch the usage statistics for Chrome, to see if the penetration rate increases quickly, or not. Besides the ease of use and speed Chrome brings to the user, there are other issues to consider, including availability of plug-ins and add-ons to make the user experience equal to other browsers. Let’s look again at Chrome in the near future to see whether it will continue to shine, or potentially become a good idea that never quite took off.

So what do you think? Will Chrome succeed and become the next major competitor to IE and Firefox?

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