Last week I talked about user experience testing and the ways in which the Google Base Team goes about testing and retesting their product.  In an effort to further enhance its user experience research, Google announced today that it was ramping up for a round of field studies with Google Base users and content providers.

I briefly mentioned the field studies in the post last week.  Google wants to know if and how you're using Google Base because they want to send someone to your office or home to talk to you.  In addition to interviews, the Google Base researchers want to watch people interacting with Google Base to get a feel for how people use their products.  If you'd rather not have a Google visitor, they'd still like to speak with you on the phone.  The announcement has the specific details on contacting Google.

I think this is an awesome step for Google to take on the usability front.  How many companies do you know of that do this?  I'm sure there are probably others.  But it's still impressive that a company as large as Google would be interested enough in how people use their services to send field researchers out to people's homes and offices.

If Google, with it's international audience, can do this, can't you do something similar on a local or regional level?  The feedback would be invaluable.  You can only learn so much from a phone call or a survey.  Being able to actually watch people use and interact with your product would be immensely more beneficial.