Drowning not waving

Okay, part II of my thoughts on Google Wave ...

I've been on Wave every day of the past week now. So I have more to share on its usability. This is by no means a thorough evaluation of all features - just some observations, including some shared with me by others.

When you first sign up to Wave, adding contacts is a priority. No contacts=no waving=why am I here? Right? And it's not immediately apparent HOW you add contacts. If you do manage to spot the lower left Manage Contacts area, and click +, then you should feel very satisfied with yourself.

But then Wave asks you to input your contacts. What do you type in? Which email address? Well, it needs to be a signed-up user of Wave. It needs to contain their @googlewave address. Cause it's the new centre of the world, right? Ahem.

So that's been the first stumbling block for some people: typing in other email addresses and desperately trying to find their networks. They've even been using gmail addresses, thinking that would work. But no cigar.

Considering that a lot of new Wave users have just been sending Wave invites to friends (using their standard email addresses), it does get confusing. One little line of instruction there, or alt text, would help.

Okay : once you're in Wave and want to 'see what it does', you need to Create a Wave or, if you're very lucky, one will show up because somebody has added you there.

You can Add Contacts to your Wave to get some discussion going.

What topic? Well, what topic do you think?

More to come soon ....