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

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

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.

6 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. What the fuck. No! by DarkRookie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    1. Re:What the fuck. No! by Hadlock · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
  2. Oh, no! another fresh flat look! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  3. Don't touch plain HTML client please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.)

  4. Function following form by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)

  5. Fuck Webmail! by macraig · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To hell with that. I use Thunderbird, and for good reason. It's one extra measure of control for me, one less for Google.