I had a job for several years at a company that used an in-house website for all of its services. Part of my (and everyone else at the company) job was to submit suggestions to improve the web site whenever I thought of them. It was awesome, because I used the web site every day and I got to see how my suggestions helped make the software easier to use. This was also great, because often I had to explain to other people how to use the software, and was always glad to make the process easier. I really loved having that validation that my suggestions were good, and they they were used to help make the lives of everyone else who worked there easier too.
Now, any time I use a web site, I'm always thinking of ways it could be better and wishing I had some way to affect the change.
One of my web site pet peeves? When a login page loads and I have to use my mouse or hit the tab key 12 times before the cursor displays in the login name field. Is it so hard to have the cursor automatically populate in that field, since it's the one people are most likely going to want anyway? Such a little thing, but it's a hassle every time.
Anyway, web site recommendations has been on my mind a lot lately, because I wish that Google Reader had the option for me to request that all of the blog posts on a site display on my reader just once a day. For example, I love Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats and It Made My Day - Funny Win Stories, but there seems to be a new entry every half hour or so from one or the other or both. I leave a window open most of the day at work because I love reading about what my friends are doing. However, it's annoying to get my hopes up that one of my friends might have posted and instead it's some stranger chirping about how happy they are that their tailgater got pulled over for speeding. There are some great stories that really do make me smile, and I'm considering contributing, but as a reader I'd rather get them all bundled together. Can't I set it to display once a day, and then all of the blogs posted within that 24 hour period all display at once? I don't even care if I can't set the time. Just a check box in the Manage Subscriptions page that says "bundle posts to appear once a day" next to each blog subscription would be great.
I'm a reader. If I'm going to break my concentration on whatever I was doing before I saw there was a new post, I'd rather have one 10 minute interruption than twenty 30 second interruptions. The instant-gratification monster inside me has a hard time waiting while the posts accumulate over two hours or so.
I should point out that when I pull up gmail.com, the cursor defaults in the user name field. Thank you, Google! You get so much right... maybe that's why this oversight bugs me so much.
What do you think? Should I submit my idea to Google? Do you ever think of things when using the computer that would make it easier to surf around or complete a task?
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