So, what can I do to perhaps accelerate the process of getting an invite? Well, step 1 is to revise my poem for resubmission. What better solution than to butcher a one-hit wonder from the 80’s. But first, here’s the original:

Ok, so now that you have that little gem stuck in your head, proceed to read my butchered, humiliating, and awful adaptation (and marvel at my skillz of search and replace). For past, current, and future employers, please do not judge my skills (as opposed to skillz) from this one blog post. What can I say? Desperate times call for drastic measures. And without further ado…

Wave Me Up Before You Go Go (or, Ode for a Wave Invite)

-Lyrics adapted from Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before you Go Go”

Google Wave [4X]

You put the Google Waves into my heart
You send my soul sky high when your preview starts
Google Waves into my brain
Goes a wave-wave-wave ’til my feet do the same
But something’s bugging me
Something ain’t right
I woke up to find no invite in sight
Left me crying ’til my eyes were red
Wish I was dreaming, ’cause I should have been with you instead.

Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t want to miss you as invites pass by
Wave me up before you go-go
‘Cause I’m not plannin’ on going solo
Wave me up before you go-go
Take me Waving tonight
Don’t go and pass me by (yeah, yeah)

I’d like a Wave please, from Google today
You’d make my sun shine brighter than the brightest day
I’d grab my board and go out to the surf
We’d be so happy, me and Vinton Cerf

‘Cause you’re my Wave, I’m your fool
It makes me crazy when you act so cruel
Come on, Wavy, let’s not fight
We’ll go Waving, everything will be all right

Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t want to miss you as invites pass by
Wave me up before you go-go
‘Cause I’m not plannin’ on going solo
Wave me up before you go-go
Take me Waving tonight
Don’t go and pass me by (yeah, yeah, yeah)

(Google Wave)
(Google Wave)

Cuddle up, Wavy, lend me your ear
There’s something that you’ve got to hear
Email, ims, and wikis too
They’ve got nothing when it comes to you

(Google Wave)

Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
Wave me up before you go-go
Don’t want to miss you as invites pass by
Wave me up before you go-go
‘Cause I’m not plannin’ on going solo
Wave me up before you go-go
Take me Waving tonight
Wave me up before you go-go, don’t you dare to leave me hanging on like a
yo-yo
Take me Waving

(wave-wave-wave)

Well, there you have it. Or not? Well, that was just step 1. Frankly, I hope only step 1 is needed. If I need to move to step 2, I’d prefer to enlist the help of the following karaoke professionals: Russ Unger (@Russu) and David Armano (@Armano). Are you guys still looking for accounts? Perhaps this (karaoke) instrumental version will inspire you:

Update, 10 pm EST

So, Google Wave’s Product Manager sent me a direct message via Twitter indicating that she’d give me an invite if I videotaped myself singing my horrible adaptation. Perhaps I’ll wait a few days after all for the friend invite I hope to receive.

One of the primary goals of any user test is to determine if the user can successfully accomplish the task set before them. But determining the usability of a feature is only one component. Is the feature fun to use? It’s sometimes difficult to get test participants to be completely honest because there is a tendency to want to try to please the test facilitator and not talk bad about a feature.

Microsoft developed a toolkit that has been used to help encourage test participants to be more truthful about both what they like and do not like about the features they experienced in a test. Generally, the participant chooses 5 words from a listing of words, generally 60% positive terms and 40% negative terms. The goal is to get participants to open up and provide more detail about what they like and do not like about the system, regardless of their level of success completing tasks. The key is not only to ask the participant to choose 5 words, but to elaborate on what they mean by each. Sometimes I’ve found the participant appears to choose polar opposite terms, but their explanation makes perfect sense once I listen to them.

In my practice, I’ve used a listing of 50 words, which I’ve found helps sore spots and bright spots stand out a bit better. The Microsoft team used a listing of over 100 words. The standard question I ask after the test is complete is the following:

“Please select 5 words from the following list that best describes your experience with _____. Explain…”

Only recently did I realize how to best compile this data. I had been looking for frequency patterns, but then my boss suggested I simply plug in this data into a word cloud, such as Wordle.

Because we use this measurement tool for each feature we test, it’s easy to communicate the “pulse” of the feature to the entire design team to determine if we are meeting our goals for usability and desirability. It also provides a more holistic assessment of the feature, because if users can successfully accomplish tasks using the feature but the word cloud suggests otherwise, then we need to rely on participants’ self-report to understand what is not pleasing to them.

Using this tool is not a complete solution – it’s part art and part science, but it truly does provide quantitative data to a qualitative measurement. I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to a nice resource by the folks at UserFocus. I didn’t even realize that others had the same idea of creating a word cloud to represent this data. They also provide a nice spreadsheet if you want a resource to get you started.