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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.

10 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 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
    2. 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=-
    3. 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.
    4. 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.

    5. 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...
    6. 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?..."

  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. 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
  4. 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.