Due to a bug in Firefox 4 I recently moved my default browser over to Google Chrome and I have been really impressed. Chrome does everything just a bit better; it is a bit faster, a bit easy to use, a bit cleaner with the interface, all of these add up to a big overall improvement. The main point for me is that Chrome does the basic things well i.e. browsing, searching, bookmarks and downloads. For most people this is all they will use the browser for.
Like most people I do not change browsers that often so it takes an external event (such as a bug or operating system incompatibility) to get me out of my comfort zone, it was the same when I moved from PC to Mac, my PC kept crashing so it gave me real incentive to change.
This made me ask myself the question how can a company incentivise people to change their default behaviours when there will be a time investment on the consumers part?
- Make the change simple – Chrome allowed me to import all of my bookmarks and preferences very easily
- Intuitive design – don’t make people invest time in learning new functions use industry standards
- Configuration – make sure you can tailor the product to get the best of both worlds e.g. Chrome allowed me to add the bookmarks bar just like Firefox did
- Constant improvement – keeping adding new features and updates so that there is no reason to move back to your old provider