Digg experience on Facebook and Google - what does it serve?

Experience is getting clustered.
Facebook, a little while ago added a little feature with a very sexy name: “News Feed Feedback”, it’s that little ‘thumbs up’ and ‘x’ icons next to every item in the news feed.

This is, from what the facebook blog say: “News Feed will use this feedback to further tailor stories for you and to identify the types of stories and applications you might like to see in the future”.

Just this morning I got a glimpse on a new feature by Google, doing kind of the same thing -

The wisdom of the crowds is getting more popular?

Now let’s compare this to Digg.com

Digg is a very good example of a good experience.

What are the user goals:

In Google- search and find - I am looking for something, I go in to Google search and I find it.

In facebook - follow - I am wondering what my friends are up to, I go in and follow the news feed.

In Digg - see what’s new - I am browsing digg, with no real goal, except getting a wide view of information, others users have liked or found important.

Who participate?

Google - everyone that is searching for something.

Facebook - Me and my friends.

Digg - a community that has some mutual interest.

Experience?

The first thing in experience design is to understand and design for the user goals and needs.

Digg tells me how many people in the community think the item I am looking at is important, and in a very easy step - one click, I can say I like it too.

Google and facebook don’t give me any feedback, I like an item, I click on it, but what does this action mean? Where does it lead to? Who else think this is good? In digg I know immediately.

So facebook and Google just made their screen a bit more crowded with actions a user don’t really need for his goals and needs.

Are more features always good?

Tags: Google, Digg, Facebook, experience, experience design, usability