'A Fresh, Clean Look.' Gmail Is About To Get a Makeover (fortune.com)

Google says it is working on a big refresh for Gmail on the web. From a report: The upgrade was revealed in a message from Google to administrators of G Suite accounts -- G Suite being the suite of Google services that organizations can use on their own web domains, rather than Google's. The message stated that the changes would be coming to consumer Gmail accounts, as well as G Suite accounts. Google said the refresh would include not only a "fresh, clean look for Gmail on the web," but also easy ways to access other Google services, such as Google Calendar, from the Gmail web app. The company recently started winding down its Chrome apps for all platforms but Google's own Chrome OS. Windows, Mac and Linux users are now being encouraged to instead use Google's web apps, and it's only logical that those interfaces are now getting upgraded to include the functionality that would otherwise be lost. The Verge has screenshots of the new interface.

Comments

What the fuck. No!

[DarkRookie]

Don't touch GMail. It is your only product still worth half a damn. Your Material Design system sucks. No one but you wants this refresh
Anyone have a different/better free email service.

Re:What the fuck. No!

[MightyYar]

I wouldn't have a major problem with it if I could understand the purpose, and if they would stop removing features.

I don't understand the purpose of a phone-friendly gmail web page when they have gmail apps everywhere.

One example of a removed feature is when they revamped the Google Voice webpage, they removed quite a few things - but most notably for me was the ability to email voicemail messages... this was useful to me because our home phone uses Google Voice and I could send my wife's messages to her.

In general, the information content is far lower with the redesign. Good for phones, where I don't use it. Bad for desktops/laptops with high-res monitors.

Re:What the fuck. No!

[Hadlock]

I agree, Material Design doesn't solve any problems for me. Gmail is an app that displays a lot of information, and as near as I can tell, designers HATE having more than one piece of information on the screen at a time. I worked for an enterprise software development company and our designer kept trying to push our app from being an information rich, wonderful app for IT staff, to this Uber-inspired single-use, single datapoint dashboard. It's been a continuous disaster and the company largely failed due to the design team's insistence on transforming the application in to the single-use java app that designers apparently train for in school.
 
I get that many users can't concentrate on a lot of data, but gmail is well laid out and doesn't need a change. Microsoft effectively nailed the email client workflow back in Outlook Express 3 and everyone has been using that template since Windows 3.1. I see no reason to change it at this point. A lot of design gets made/created, it seems, simply because designers need to validate their job(s) at the company. There are a lot of badly designed apps out there, but gmail is not one of them.
 
Google News website is another good example of the design team running roughshod over an amazing data spigot with all sorts of levers and buttons hidden just under the surface, and ripping all that out turning it in to a dumb cell phone app that you are allowed to access from your PC.
 
Google's design team needs to work on supporting emerging apps, not redesigning the successful ones. Google's webapps such as gmail are successful almost entirely due to their existing design.

Knowing them

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure can't wait for an oversized design full of useless whitespace, flat design and no affordances with 50% of the content hidden.

Re:Knowing them

[vtcodger]

You left out the use of low contrast colors including, but not limited to, light blue on a white background and the even less readable white on light blue..

In any case, it's a moot point. Despite having DSL fast enough to support 3 TVs streaming different programming simultaneously, gmail and Google docs are so slow and clunky from my location that I long since set up IMAP and POP interfaces for my gmail.

Oh, no! another fresh flat look!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Why these guys casually change the look and feel without worrying about users?

Using wordless icons makes sense in a 5 inch mobile screen. Here I have two 24 inch full def screens, and I need to guess "will this create a new message? or this? Or will it reply all? Where is that stupid gear icon? Oh, they changed it to ham-sandwich. Now ham-sandwich is gone and we got kebab. There is a + in a circle. Or sometimes there is a pencil. "

There is no clear demarkation of where the clickable area ends. There is no delineation of clickable areas. Who designs these swipe gestures? swipe up down left right pinch and expand roll ....

They will not rest till we all spend all our days learning new GUI every day.

Don't touch plain HTML client please

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Google,

Please don't touch the plain HTML web client.

It's the one part of Gmail which is fast and efficient and doesn't need Javascript.

Thanks. (Signed, a guy who just wants to send email without having to fight a "modern" UI.)

No No No!! Do not want!

[DatbeDank]

The jack offs already ruined calendar, now they're ruining Gmail?

Change for the sake of change. I hate it! Silicon valley and it's adhd on design changes ffs. Let it go! If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Function following form

[sjbe]

Fucking "designers" are getting way too full of themselves. Look, I grant that good industrial design is a hugely useful and can add a lot of value to a product. But WAY too many products these days (software especially) have changes for the sake of changes so designers can collect a paycheck and keep busy. My smartphone has WAY too many applications with needlessly obtuse interface decision because the "designer" thought they looked cool or wanted things to be needlessly minimalistic. It's function following form when it should be the other way around.

It seems pretty clear that usability testing is no longer a thing in software interface design. I am SO tired of incomprehensible icons, unintuitive gestures, blind navigation spaces, hidden design elements, lack of written labels, inconsistent interfaces, and needless changes to perfectly functional software. I hate web pages that put information that should fit on one screen in a huge page forcing me to scroll endlessly over needlessly large graphics that convey little information. (Apple I'm look at you here)

fresh clean look?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fresh and Clean look == More white space, new icons with no labels, no clear clickable areas, flat blue on white color scheme you can't change.....

I fuckin hate this new flat shit

What for?

[OneHundredAndTen]

While I have no vested interest in Gmail, using it sporadically and for nothing really all that important, I resent this penchant for GUI makeovers just for the sake of it. I am already familiar with the interface; I do not have the need or desire to become familiar with a new interface, which probably will allow me to do the same things, with pretty much the same level of ease or difficulty, only in a different way. I'd rather devote my time to learning other, more interesting and personally rewarding things. I am all for change and innovation, but with a purpose other than just change and innovation.