Google Page Creator – “Small Design Stuff” Leads to Frustration
Google has a not-so-bad web site design and hosting service called Google Page Creator. And it’s FREE!
I’ve been using this free service since April 2006 for my own web site www.writer111.com
That is of course not its original URL but I have directed my own domain name to point at http://writer111.googlepages.com/ which is the real URL.
For web sites that do not need frequent updating this service is just great.
But it has one small design flaw that I’m surprised Google’s really smart engineers and design team still have not discovered it.
When you are in Gmail, there is no easy way to get back to your Google Page Creator.
Almost every Google service imaginable is one easy click away from Gmail EXCEPT the “Pages” and I have no idea why.
For example, when you are looking at your Gmail main page, you see both a number of links up on the top of your page and also additional links on your drop down list under “more”.
But NONE of those links include “Pages”.
So how do you get to your web site design module if you are in Gmail?
First, you navigate BACK to www.google.com (by clicking the WEB link on top) while you are still signed in to your Gmail account, which then takes you to your main standard Google page.
There, you will notice the all-important MY ACCOUNT link on upper right.
When you click on MY ACCOUNT, that’s where you will see the PAGE CREATOR link listed and NOWHERE ELSE.
Click that and voila! you’ll be in your web site design module.
Why Google cannot include the PAGE CREATOR link either in the Gmail page top links or inside the “more” drop-down list is a mystery. But the first time you try to go from Gmail to “Page Creator” you will discover what a navigational feat it is. And the more you take that annoying detour, the more you realize how such very simple design flaws end up creating a totally frustrating user experience.
Small things… take care of the “small stuff” and the “larger stuff” will automatically take care of itself.
