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Google Chrome's New UI is Ugly, And People Are Very Angry (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for ZDNet: Every major user interface (UI) redesign project is a hit and miss game, and Google's new Chrome UI appears to be a colossal miss. Designed with mobile devices in mind, the new Chrome user interface style was officially rolled out in September this year, with the release of Chrome version 69. Not all users liked the new UI, and this was clear from the beginning, with some users voicing their discontent online even back then. However, those users who didn't appreciate the new lighter-toned Chrome interface had the option to visit the chrome://flags page and modify a Chrome setting and continue using Chrome's older UI.

But with Chrome version 71, released earlier this month, Google has removed the Chrome flag that allowed users to use the old UI. As you might imagine, this change did not go well, at all. Chrome's new UI might have been developed with a mobile-first approach in mind, but the UI is problematic on laptops and desktops, where its lighter tone and rounded tabs make it extremely hard to distinguish tabs from one another, especially when users open multiple tabs. Since being able to distinguish and switch between tabs at a fast pace is an important detail in most of today's internet-based jobs, many users have been having trouble adapting to the new UI both at work and at home, especially if they're the kind of people who deal with tens of tabs at the same time.

49 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. Getting tired of this by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not specific to Chrome, but - why does "mobile first" generally seem to consistently result in "crappy everywhere"?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Getting tired of this by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

      Because "mobile first" seems to imply the current "everything white" UI trend.

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      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    2. Re: Getting tired of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It is also designed for people to use in one hand with their thumbs, which doesn't translate well for power users that insist on using a full keyboard and mouse

    3. Re:Getting tired of this by mfearby · · Score: 2

      Possibly because the idea of a right-click (or other keyboard shortcuts) don't exist for mobile (apart from a long press in place of a right-click, I guess), so therefore a "mobile first" strategy often means making things less convenient for desktop experiences (where the developers wish to share as much code as possible and not fork the UI for the desktop).

    4. Re:Getting tired of this by Misagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The colour does not matter much on LCDs, but on OLED screens, brighter colours not only consume more battery, they also wear out the screens faster.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    5. Re: Getting tired of this by Calydor · · Score: 5, Funny

      Using a full keyboard includes using the period key at the end of sentences.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    6. Re:Getting tired of this by rainmouse · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah it's painful, especially because all white is sooo great for power usage on mobiles. :(
      I don't know a single mobile website that's not vastly improved by forcing mobile browser to use desktop version.

    7. Re:Getting tired of this by Spacelem · · Score: 2

      I for one don't like the "everything white" UI trend. I'd much rather the UI elements were dark, so they didn't use power on my amoled display, and didn't blind me when I'm reading my phone in bed in the dark.

      Unfortunately Google Chrome has no option to change it (unless you're lucky enough to be on a website that sets the colours) and I have no idea where you'd go to directly tell Google your opinion on the matter.

    8. Re:Getting tired of this by cheekyboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A msg to YOU CEOS and underling UI coders ;

      Your work is shit, you are shit, you are useless and all your work will be undone in a few years, ufck you.

      Just boot a 2010 Mac, and look at OSX 10.6 , oh wow, so pretty, so nice, so cute, fucking sweet ass bitch.

      All these modern shit, made by simpletons newbies is crap. Might have been ok in 1998 with crap hardware.

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    9. Re:Getting tired of this by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My guess is that the new guys have no idea how to make a proper interface. And to complicate things they discard the current interfaces (products of decades of improvements) because they are "obsolete" for them, not "shiny and new".

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    10. Re:Getting tired of this by tsa · · Score: 2

      Indeed. And some websites stubbornly and consistently show only the mobile version on mobile devices, even on the iPad (looking at you, FaceBook). Very annoying.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    11. Re:Getting tired of this by jon3k · · Score: 5, Informative

      Agreed, it's using flat interfaces where you cannot spare a few pixels to create bevels to more clearly visually distinguish between elements. I realize that flat interface sure LOOK pretty, but the usability is objectively worse than the last generation of software applications with distinct, three dimensional controls and consistent set of toolkit widgets.

    12. Re:Getting tired of this by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      A msg to YOU CEOS and underling UI coders ;

      Your work is shit, you are shit, you are useless and all your work will be undone in a few years, ufck you.

      Just boot a 2010 Mac, and look at OSX 10.6 , oh wow, so pretty, so nice, so cute, fucking sweet ass bitch.

      All these modern shit, made by simpletons newbies is crap. Might have been ok in 1998 with crap hardware.

      Funny you should mention that. I was working on an iMac of that vintage with a hard drive problem. After fixing it I set it up for my wife to try out. She had never used a mac before, and is used to more "modern" UI's. She loved it! And her reaction read like your post. I'll have to show her the post when I get home.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    13. Re: Getting tired of this by datavirtue · · Score: 2

      That long press and other assorted hidden UI features suck balls. Total anti-pattern when required to perform a nessesary action.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    14. Re: Getting tired of this by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Define meaningful. OLED degrade when used. On your phone it's completely irrelevant. On a TV the jury is still out. On a PC however where the screen is on for many hours of the day showing a static image and we expect more than a few years life from our monitors (my current one is 10 years old), it becomes meaningful.

    15. Re:Getting tired of this by bjwest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... and I have no idea where you'd go to directly tell Google your opinion on the matter.

      Using Firefox is my choice to state my opinion to Google about Chrome.

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      --- Keep the choice with the user..
    16. Re:Getting tired of this by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Flat interfaces SUCK.

      One of the things that made Windows 3 UI so likeable was that the interface actually looked like things people recognized, like buttons. People instantly got it- this thing that looked like a button could be clicked or pushed to do something.

      Now everything is a flat fucking rectangle, who knows if it's a label, a status indicator, a button, a decoration, or whatever the fuck else there is.

      I mean, why the fuck have a button that doesn't remotely resemble an actual, pushable button?

      And don't get me started on the hipster trend of "discoverable" interfaces. Fuck that shit, just give me a goddamn menu and let me get some shit done. I do NOT want to have to "discover" your fucking interface, that's the opposite of good design.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    17. Re: Getting tired of this by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use the hobby i2s oled displays (common with arduino projects).

      after 1 year of a calendar project being displayed on my oled single color display, there IS burn in.

      this is a fact. you may not notice it but if you leave a pattern on oled, it DOES burn in. can't be helped with how oled works, today.

      so, don't expect long life from them; and don't pay a lot for them since they WILL wear out. warranty won't cover it since displaying things on oled is destructive itself (like an old o'scope from tek that used phosphor for high persistence; that one kind of scope display destroyed itself a little each time you used it. LPs (records) are also like that. anything that wears down as you watch or listen to it - that's not long-term stable stuff, of course.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    18. Re:Getting tired of this by jez9999 · · Score: 2

      One thing that I've always found very annoying about Chrome's UI is that there are always close buttons on every tab, until you have like 100 tabs open. On desktop, you can use middle-click to close tabs... and I do. There's a long Google Groups thread somewhere with hundreds of users saying "please provide an option to remove close buttons on tabs" and Google did their usual arrogant thing of saying "no, it makes the product better [somehow]". I wouldn't say I accidentally close tabs all the time but I do maybe once every few days, and it is fucking annoying. Tabs should be buttonless!

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    19. Re:Getting tired of this by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I still design with Skeuomorphism. While not in fashion, we are pushing on figurative buttons and I've seen precious few buttons in the real world that are flat, shadowless monochromatic tiles. The trick is to make it fairly subtle

      The attack on Skeuomorphism was led by people without the skills to design that way. Flat is easier. That is my theory.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    20. Re:Getting tired of this by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      I still design with Skeuomorphism. While not in fashion, we are pushing on figurative buttons and I've seen precious few buttons in the real world that are flat, shadowless monochromatic tiles. The trick is to make it fairly subtle

      The attack on Skeuomorphism was led by people without the skills to design that way. Flat is easier. That is my theory.

      It certainly looks that way. Stick figure level design.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    21. Re:Getting tired of this by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      There is no such thing as making Skeuomorphism "fairly subtle".

      Of course there is. You could, for example, make a photorealistic pushbutton or a very stylised cartoony one with a quite decent artist's rendering in between.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    22. Re:Getting tired of this by adrn01 · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you have to "discover" the parts of the UI they wrote that you actually need, perhaps they should be forced to "discover" their paychecks. "Under the rug? Nope,not there...perhaps behind the wall poster?..."

    23. Re:Getting tired of this by mcswell · · Score: 3, Funny

      How about under the pink slip?

  2. I don't get what the fuss is all about by mfearby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "its lighter tone and rounded tabs make it extremely hard to distinguish tabs from one another, especially when users open multiple tabs."

    My eye sight is garbage and I'm normally the first person to complain about something being bad, but I've had no problems with Chrome 71. In fact, I didn't even know that this latest version was as described, although now that I look more closely, I can see that I don't get to see the rounded shapes of the inactive tabs until I hover over them.

    I can see the favicon for each tab clearly, I can see each tab's close button, and I can see a clear divider between each tab. I can also clearly see which is the active tab.

    Move along, nothing to see here, except a beat up.

  3. I never saw a problem... by Tomahawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I use Chrome both in work and at home. I would end up having a lot of tabs open in work, especially. I've never seen any if the issues being described here. Nor heard anyone in work complain. So I really don't get this...

    Is this maybe just one person trying to find a reason to rant because they just don't like change, no matter how small, and are blowing stuff out of proportion?

    1. Re:I never saw a problem... by dissy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I use Chrome both in work and at home. I would end up having a lot of tabs open in work, especially. I've never seen any if the issues being described here. Nor heard anyone in work complain. So I really don't get this...

      So is it if anyone has an opinion not matching your own, it's invalid?
      Otherwise I don't get your post either.

      Is this maybe just one person trying to find a reason to rant because they just don't like change, no matter how small, and are blowing stuff out of proportion?

      I know five people personally, one of which is me. So the answer to that is no.

      With aging eyesight and 40 years worth of muscle memory knowing the title bar is for moving windows, the latest UI change completely breaks flow and makes a mess of the tabs nearly defeating the entire point of them.

      There is 4 pixels worth of blue at the very top of the title bar that functions to move the browser window. Anywhere below that in the exact same colored blue is a tab.
      So the normal process of clicking in the title bar and dragging the window where you need it turns into chrome thinking I am clicking on a tab and dragging just it where I wanted the entire browser to be.
      Sometimes this results in that tab detaching and becoming its own window, other times it just results in reordering the tabs.

      If that is going to be the new behavior, it would be far faster and efficient to go back to individual windows and pretend the one tab in each window doesn't exist.
      At least that way the same end result will already be there and expected, and at least it won't change the order of the windows in the task bar, or require retraining how the title bar works for a single app and the decades old behavior in all others.

    2. Re:I never saw a problem... by dissy · · Score: 2

      Uhm....dude. WTF? Are you really that incompetent that you can't adapt to figure out how to move the window via the title bar?
      If you click on the area between the + and the - at the top right of the title, that space will never have anything in it. There's always space there.

      There is an invisible line between those two, with no space by minimize, and again only a few pixels above the plus. The only space even around the plus is due to it showing with a circle outline that has a few more pixels in the corners of the bounding box it is in.

      Also you should be more careful throwing around insults like incompetent when you just literally stated the way to move windows is with a tiny space near one corner.

      Go open any other window - a file manager, a text editor - anything.
      Click *right in the center* of the title bar and move it around. See how it actually works?
      Even Chrome used to work that way just the same. Hell it still does if you manage to miss the invisible line where the tabs start.

      So no, don't even try to claim that isn't the standard way to move a window.

    3. Re:I never saw a problem... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The thing about UI design: doing anything your own clever way is bad, stupid and wrong. The right way is always "the way the user expects".

      And now you know the difference between UI and UX:

      UI: User Interface. The means by which the user interacts with the computer
      UX: User eXperience. The means by which the marketing department shows off how trendy they are to potential advertisers.

  4. When I was learning the ropes of programming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...everyone told us to use the system theme when drawing UI widgets and such. What changed?

  5. Re: When I was learning the ropes of programming.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    That went the way of "Things you can click should look different to things you can't" and "No matter how much the arty farty ui guys have #@%&ed things up to make it look 'pretty', you can always right click to get things done".

  6. Progressive worsening by Misagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is only the latest in a general trend of Google of making their UI -- desktop, mobile and web -- progressively worse.
    This being a distinct change, top, front and centre, and not something snuck in sideways in a seldom-used dialogue box, it is something that people notice immediately.

    People have been upset about several more minor changes for a longer time, but for some, this was the last straw.
    Reduced contrast, hover-indicators that take long to appear, hamburger menus and close-buttons that you don't see until you hover over them, wasted whitespace ...
    Those are all crimes against good design, and part of Google's "Material Design" or "Polymer" or whatever they decide to call it these days.

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Progressive worsening by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      What the hell are you on about?

      In the default install of Chrome on Windows the hamburger menu is visible always. The tab close buttons are visible always. There is no wasted whitespace at all. Are you sure you are not confusing it with Firefox, which does in fact hide some of the UI and recently added random whitespace around the URL bar?

      Oh, and the hover animations are instant for me, and the pop-up tool-tips take around 500ms to appear (estimate), faster than the default on Windows.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  7. UI by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For some reasons modern designers are hell bent on making UI as opaque as possible and here at slashdot it's been already discussed multiple times.

    I've found the only justification to this madness: designers have long become redundant but they want to be paid that's why we have new trends all the time and new design decisions which make the user completely lost.

    For me, the best design was implemented in Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/7 OS'es without ribbon. The worst came in the form of Windows 8/MS Office 2007 and it's been all downhill since then. Too bad corporations just don't want to admit that and they still insist that there's one UI which fits them all which cannot be further from the truth as large displays with mouse and keyboard are a completely different mode of operation than touch devices with comparatively small screens.

  8. Re: Fake News by Joce640k · · Score: 2

    Hush, the official UI spokesperson for the entire Internet is speaking.

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    No sig today...
  9. Re:Its free, stop your whingeing by reboot246 · · Score: 2

    Okay, but first you'll have to tell me what "whingeing" is. It sounds pretty bad, whatever it is.

  10. I'm just so angry right about now! by bb_matt · · Score: 2

    The world is going to hell, there's a madman in the white house, global warming is out of control, the stock markets are crashing, but dammit, don't fuck with my UI!

    I think this article may be a case of exaggeration, but if not, there's certainly more important things to be angry about...

    1. Re: I'm just so angry right about now! by Mattatron · · Score: 2

      I can be angry at more than one thing at a time. It's my superpower.

  11. Teletubby interfaces and information density by shatteredsilicon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The thing that this particular teletubby interface update broke is information density. After the update, the new skin in both gmail and calendar quite simply puts less on a screen. On the desktop it is annoying. On the mobile devices with limited screen real estate, it is downright devastating for usage and productivity.

    It's as if since the turn of the century, user interfaces have been continuously redesigned to be more and more friendly toward children under 2 - with rounded corners and buttons too big to accidentally swallow. It's as if Fischer Price have been contracted to do user interface designs ever since.

    1. Re:Teletubby interfaces and information density by Art+Challenor · · Score: 2

      /. beta anyone?

  12. Google = shit, and cannot be trusted, period. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Anyone who willingly uses Google products is asking for either disappointment or betrayal.

    How many times does Google have to arbitrarily kill off "products" before you cretins GET IT ?

    Be quick now, and mod this post down because it threatens your sad little self image as a willing user of shit ( Google ) products.

  13. They're angry NOW? by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Chrome's UI has stunk on ice since day one. Now they're angry?

    I do hate the trend of mobile apps with crap UI, though. For example, Firefox for mobile would benefit from a preferences dialog that would let me disable pocket, and tell the browser to actually load the URL I called it with instead of showing me quick links (including pocket.) I had never even heard of Pocket before Firefox integrated it over the wishes of the users, who proclaimed that we did not want it. Now I think it's the antichrist, and I hope their HQ falls over and bursts into flames.

    We're going to need a new Mozilla foundation, without blackjack and hookers. Because they are apparently spending all their time partying, and none listening to users. We're gonna need a new Phoenix browser.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. Welcome to your browser monopoly by xack · · Score: 2

    With Firefox killing their real add ons and Edge becoming a Chrome clone you are effectively limited to the Choices of the Chrome developers of what is good for browsing the web. You could have stopped this, but you didn't. The last resistance is in the Firefox forks but they will be crushed eventually as Chrome exerts its monopoly powers.

  15. Workaround by williamyf · · Score: 2

    Use firefox, for the next few weeks the interface will be very similar to the old chrome's interface. But be warned that, in two releases, they will copy the new chrome's interface, and then you will be back to square one...

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
  16. modern UI are puzzles by e**(i+pi)-1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    maybe that UI designers come from the gaming industry. They design puzzles. Once one get used to things, hide the toolbar, hide the scrolling bars, hide and seek is the new trend. That is what games are for: find the treasure! Find the current URL, fine the place to print, jackpot. Even when reading stories, the pictures have to appear dynamically, nonlinear story telling makes even reading a text feel like running through a maze. Maybe one has to swipe left, maybe down, maybe click. Just add a few adds, which attack from random sides and we are in a full blown computer game. Sometimes, one really misses the simplicity of the 90ies.

  17. The new UI *is* ugly? by reboot246 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, Google Chrome's UI has *always* been ugly. The shame is they won't let users change it easily. I use Chrome for only a handful of websites that simply don't work very well with other browsers. I can't imagine having to use it all of the time.

  18. Re:Huh? by bjwest · · Score: 2

    Current tab for me is white with the others as light gray. Really no problem distinguishing them.

    --

    --- Keep the choice with the user..
  19. Ugh, clickbaity headlines by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

    "Google Chrome's New UI is Ugly, And People Are Very Angry"

    Jesus, please stop with the HuffPost and DailyMail style headlines. FFS, this isn't Romper Room or The Enquirer.

    Alternative headlines:

    Google Chrome's New UI is Ugly and It Broke The Internet
    Google Chrome's New UI is Ugly and Cardi B Clapped Back at Them
    Google Chrome's New UI is Ugly and Demi Lovato Showed Off Her Toned Abs
    Google Chrome's New UI so Ugly that the Queen's Protocol Made Her Do WHAT?
    What Does Kanye Think About The New Chrome Interface?

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  20. Re:Its free, stop your whingeing by Xtifr · · Score: 2

    http://lmgtfy.com/?s=d&q=whingeing