Google’s Remote Sign Out and Knowing Your Customer
Let’s face it, it is of utmost importance to understand your clients. Many companies, large and small, struggle with understanding their clients or installation base. The key to truly understanding your client really is to use the product on a day-to-day basis to understand how it is used and what could make it better.
Not two days ago I was lamenting what a pain it is to head into the office only to realize I had not signed off my Gmail account at home. Or to leave a visit with my parents only to remember that I had not signed out of my Gmail account while using their computer. Or, were I a student late for class, to run from a computer lab only to remember that my Gmail account is still active in chat with my latest loan information sitting open for all to read. You get the picture: me hoping that my parents are not going to try and open an account on “that newfangled Gmail everyone is talking about” only to discover that there is already one signed in, and that my recent order of 10,000 latex condoms and 40 gallons of ultra-hot hot sauce shipped last night.
And then on Monday Google releases the nerve-wracking solution to my problem by adding the Remote Sign Out and Information feature to Gmail. This ridiculously simple tool is such an excellent example of how Google understands how people use their product and can formulate a simple solution to alleviate the stresses of leaving an account signed in elsewhere. Now I can see how recently my remote accounts were active, which IP they were active from, and then I can sign them out.
And this, my friends, is why understanding your clients is so important. This is why we take the time to understand what our clients want, need, and how they are going to use what we provide to better provide for their clients. It is your business and we want you to know that we get you, what you do, and what you need. It may take a few more hours, but a personal approach works.
Indeed. So many companies don’t “eat their own dog food”, as the saying goes. There’s a big tendency by developers, and designers to a lesser extent, to think “the user wants X” or “the user will think Y” without putting themselves in the user role to begin with. It’s not much different than building a car, but never driving one at any point in the process to understand how the end-user will interact with it.
You really do have to eat your own dog food to know if it’s any good.
I agree that it’s a wonderful feature by Google, a company that makes software according to the needs of the people, rather than forcing people the company’s way.
However, it seems unfortunate that this feature is not yet implemented for Google Talk. This is also equally important, since someone can easily open the inbox from a logged in Google Talk account. Not only that, the “Remember Me” feature is disastrous, since it doesn’t forget you even after you provide an incorrect username and password.
@Abu Yaha - All very good points. While I do connect to Gtalk with Adium or Meebo, I don’t use it directly from Gmail so remote logout for Gtalk wasn’t something I really thought about.
Correct about Remember Me too. I’m not a fan of implementing that feature on any account that could, potentially, contain sensitive data. Regardless, we see it everywhere as supposed convenience. I really prefer Firefox’s save-passwords implementation, which prompts the user for a master password before auto-filling any logins, and asks the user before saving any login data.