
Gmail’s new look - johnnytee
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/gmails-new-look.html
======
ComputerGuru
One thing I dislike in the new Google styling is the general lack of contrast.
It makes navigation a bit slower due to delayed object recognization for power
users.

Everything just takes milliseconds longer to sink in.

~~~
peterjmag
On a related note, I find it very difficult to distinguish between the white
background of unread message rows from the very-slightly gray background of
read rows. (Probably worth noting that I'm mildly colorblind though.)

The bold subject on unread messages helps, but it isn't enough for my eyes.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
I'm not colorblind at all, and I have a hell of a time distinguishing between
read and un-read mail in the new look.

------
Kylekramer
The new search dropdown is what I am excited about. I know that the operators
were always there and advanced search was a click away, but what can I say, I
am lazy.

~~~
p4bl0
I'm lazy too, and that's why I prefer to type in keywords rather than having
to tab-tab-tab-tab-tab until I get to the relevant field or worse, having to
grab my mouse to select the kind of search I want to do. It seems it will
still be possible to type directly keywords in the field so it's okay. I hope
they also let all the key-binding (for instance, '/' to focus the searchbox).

Now, let's hope that the next step is not to make Gmail just a Google+ app,
like they did with Google Reader.

~~~
willpower101
Hopefully they'll leave in the ability to just type in your boolean search. I
prefer that method as well and send myself a lot of email so I'm often
searching for stuff like [from:me has:attachment]

~~~
hasanove
using a search dropdown just adds those operators automatically, so manual
typing should work exactly the same

~~~
espinchi
Which is the best way to learn those operators. The shortcut "/" to get to the
search box is probably what I use the most, and writing "from:john to:mailing-
list" is such a great time saver, if you compare to other mail clients.

~~~
p4bl0
What I use the most is [j]/[k] to move between email from the inbox while
using [x] to select some messages which i [shift]+[i] to mark them as read and
the [e] to archive. I think I easily do that with half of my emails for which
reading the subject (and sometimes also the little preview) is enough to know
that I don't have to read them.

This is what makes Gmail very powerful for me.

~~~
BrandonM
I totally agree, except that I tend to use [y] to archive, since it also does
the "right thing" from views other than the Inbox (e.g. removing label "Todo"
from selected emails when viewing all emails with label "Todo").

I also use [ and ] a lot. From message view, they archive the current message
and immediately move to the previous/next message in the current list.

------
joebadmo
Seems like they addressed a lot of the initial gripes people had with the new
UI preview. I'm hopeful that similar evolution will be coming to Google
Reader.

~~~
dmix
The thing I'm most impressed about is the speed at which this has come out.

It seems like gmail has previously changed at a glacial speed (for
better/worse).

I hope they continue to improve the UX of gmail on a continuous basis.

~~~
eneveu
Google is in the midst of the largest redesign in its history. There may be
more to come. Here is a cool talk about this by Jon Wiley, Lead Designer for
Google Search: <http://vimeo.com/29965463> He talks about GMail around
11min10s

------
davux
Each time Google updates Gmail, there is another hit on accessibility for
visually impaired users. With each new version, zooming makes the content area
smaller and smaller, while making the (significantly less useful) editing
elements and other mostly uninteresting things larger and larger. Adding more
padding and reducing contrast is completely at odds with accessibility (and,
potentially, a good desktop mail experience). I think I can still get by with
Gmail at high zoom, but one or two more changes and I’ll have no choice but to
jump ship to something else (or go fulltime with Outlook, which is overkill
for personal mail).

It makes me really sad to see that accessibility is getting worse at Google,
not better. The problem isn't limited to Gmail, it's also now in core search
and probably just about everything else since the G+ wave of updates. :(

~~~
ImprovedSilence
I've been thinking of jumping the Google ship these days. Dropbox killed
google docs for me, G+ didn't attract enough of my friends for it to be worth
my time, Google reader went from my favorite waste of time, to outta sight,
outta mind, Gmail got rid of my custom color scheme, and makes it impossible
to read big long email threads all at once, and I can't even tell which emails
I'v read the contrast is so effin bad. The only thing I'd have a hard time
leaving is chrome, but I just bought my first mac, and Safari doesn't seem too
bad. Google is still a powerhouse, but I wonder if they didn't just do this:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpraJYnbVtE>

------
brador
I use a netbook for my gmail. This new UI is, once again, a big negative from
me because of all the wasted "white space".

I hate this love affair we have at the moment with white space. To me, it's
wasted space. I guess I just hate scrolling or maybe I should just move to
Asia.

~~~
antics
Inevitably when you develop web technology at scale you end up asking the
question of whether you should degrade the experience of the common case to
make it ~comfortable for, e.g., netbooks.

Usually the answer, at least for a service like GMail, is to just ignore the
netbooks. I actually think that's the right answer almost always, but I would
absolutely love to hear the opposing view, as this is a position that I feel I
don't fully understand.

~~~
chadgeidel
It's basically just a styling issue though. Couldn't they just provide a
"netbook style"? Consider that tablets are about the same size and tablets are
probably going to be the "common case". Unless of course they are providing a
specific "tablet style".

Another poster indicated that the theme automatically resized based on window
dimensions. I'm not seeing the new theme (merely the "Preview" theme in the
list - there's a "Preview (Dense)" in the theme list as well).

~~~
Slackwise
> Couldn't they just provide a "netbook style"?

How did we lose sight of the fact that this is the entire purpose of
stylesheets? To separate the display of information for various
devices/platforms/needs. So yea, they should provide a "netbook style", and
any other. That's really the point of it all.

> I'm not seeing the new theme

When it rolls out to your account, you'll see a little black notification
bar/box in the bottom-right asking you if you want to try the new theme.

~~~
FireBeyond
"How did we lose sight of the fact that this is the entire purpose of
stylesheets? To separate the display of information for various
devices/platforms/needs. So yea, they should provide a "netbook style", and
any other. That's really the point of it all."

Seems to me, "a couple of years ago". That's when any real innovation in CSS
seemed to cease.*

* I can hear people arguing already. By "innovation in CSS", I don't mean "cool, awesome tricks" like "being able to render strange bullets in pure CSS by bastardizing four divs, a span, and a dozen lines of stylesheet", or "a bargraph library that outputs pure CSS".

Those are cool, awesome tricks, to be sure, hacks, but the very definition of
"solving the wrong problem".

------
ck2
I get the point that designers want to design and fiddle with everything like
little children, constantly, regardless of how other people have actual work
to do regardless of their playtime.

However constantly changing any user interface is a fantastic way to make
customers furious when they can no longer find things and have to stop to
adapt, over and over.

Why not allow the old look to function for years instead of weeks or months.
There is no way you are going to convince me google doesn't have the resources
to do that, it's not a massive internal change, it's a visual layer.

I really need to make a point to switch to Thunderbird and imap in 2012 -
google is getting on my last nerve on every product they offer.

~~~
jrockway
For every old user that hates the change, there are a million people who have
never used gmail before and will like it when they switch. Why should progress
be held back because you can't adapt?

(I don't really like Google's new style either, but it doesn't really upset me
or damage my experience in any way.)

~~~
megablast
Unlikely. People don't use gmail because of the user interface, they use it
because they are locked in with their email address. New users will pick what
they have heard off, or what their friends use.

~~~
kleiba
Tons of people started using gmail exactly because of the user interface.

For your second point, if you really mean "locked in" (as in "my company has
outsourced their email to gmail") you can always use an IMAP client.

But I guess this is just a small typo and you mean "logged in" - in which case
I'm not sure I can follow? Is your point that people don't like the user
interface but use it anyway because their friends use it?! Not sure I buy. If
no-one forces you to use gmail, don't use it. Or, again, use an IMAP client.

~~~
rhnoble
Not to mention keyboard shortcuts! Navigating with my keyboard seriously saves
me tons of time everyday.

~~~
kellishaver
Also very handy for users who can't see the mouse well or rely on a screen
reader.

------
reduxredacted
Based on what I've seen from this blog post, my initial impression is that I
don't think I'm going to like the new Gmail UI (I haven't been able to use it,
so this is based on the preview). But I'll be perfectly happy when they
arrive.

One of the many reasons I switched to GMail was the fact that they didn't
charge to access mail from a POP3 (and now IMAP). Neither protocol is perfect
(or perhaps it's the implementation in the variety of mail apps that support
it), but the bottom line is that there are limitless numbers of clients that
support those protocols, which allows me to abandon the web platform if I
choose to.

When my bride complains about the next Facebook UI overhaul, I always think of
this. To clarify, I'm always stuck thinking of Facebook in terms of old-school
online service like AOL with features that fit better in the 21st century...I
get that it's not e-mail+ or e-mail-. And I appreciate that it has a powerful
API, the usage of which allows me to avoid the UI overhauls for the limited
feature-set that I enjoy. But for e-mail, I still prefer the provider with the
most options.

Count me in as perfectly fine with the new UI changes because I don't have to
care if I don't like them.

------
navs
Google Apps users, is there any way to permanently get rid of that black strip
on the bottom right advertising the marketplace and now, the new look?

~~~
cade
Check the element's class/id. Create a user stylesheet for your browser. Set
the element to display:none. Profit.

------
kirillzubovsky
I love the use of white space and the clean looks of Gmail, but it pains me to
see when "UI designers" build an interface where 20% of the screen is taken up
by useless objects.

I understand Google wants me to search and to use G+, but for user's sake,
could you shove all that into 1 button and make it expand on click, so I could
actually use my gmail screen for something like... answering emails.

Is this too much to ask? Google, the new Yahoo!?

p.s. No, the "compact" view doesn't really solve the problem. The objects get
smaller and narrower, but the top banner still takes up all the premium space.

~~~
acqq
I agree that compact view doesn't solve the problem.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3184606>

The problem are non-scrollable regions. What's next, status bar on the page
and even more menus?

~~~
watmough
Non-scrollable regions containing ads and doodads are a killer for me.

Once this is forced on us, I will withdraw to a native client.

~~~
acqq
Also:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3184798>

------
CGamesPlay
This is a very refreshing look. They've really simplified and glossed over a
lot of the details of email going on underneath. I wonder if they were able to
do this in a way that still has all the features of the original, or else what
didn't make the cut.

------
atarian
I absolutely love the fact that you can control the density of the emails.
This was a huge deal-breaker for me with the new theme and made me go back to
the old theme. I'd be more than happy to try this new look out.

~~~
dasil003
Me too. I understand that the new design is visually more appealing and
creates a better mood and sense of elegance for the user, but Gmail was
designed for large volume email users, and it continues to be the best client
for that use case, beating out every native app (at least that I've ever
tried). For this type of user, packing more information on the screen is a
huge usability boost. That might mean that Andy Rutledge will declare it crap
and make a redux version that doesn't jab his monkey brain with a sharp stick,
but it certainly doesn't mean that proportion and whitespace can't be used
effectively on a more compact level.

------
anigbrowl
Are other Google products using the same layout engine or are they just
copying the visual appearance? I'd like to have the same layout controls
available in Docs, Calendar, Reader etc.

~~~
fleaflicker
Gmail and Docs both use Closure Library

<http://code.google.com/p/closure-library/>

------
tambourine_man
Still won't do partial word searches.

I use Gmail's backend but I can't use something that won't find “client” in
“mynewclient”.

Amazing that a company known for search can't provide this simple and
essential feature.

------
gigawatt
Meanwhile, my Google Apps account design is stuck 3 or 4 iterations ago.

~~~
kenny_r
The "preview" skin is available on Google Apps.

I activated it on a new domain yesterday: <http://i.imgur.com/PoQ2F.png>

~~~
bmaeser
where is that to be found?

~~~
qxb
Settings > Themes

~~~
bmaeser
thank you :-) (stupid me)

------
untog
It looks good. But the one thing I do notice is that the screenshots they've
provided in the blog don't have a strip of ads running down the right hand
side of the page. I'll be interested to see what it looks like with those in.

~~~
VikingCoder
The video shows what ads look like on the right hand side.

~~~
abraham
They also have an ad over the list of emails in the inbox. As of yet I have
not seen this ad in the actual product.

~~~
gujk
That ad has been there for years. You probably turned it off and forgot.

------
kqueue
I don't like fixed position UI and scrolling within a small section. I prefer
the whole page to scroll.

I am staying on the old version.

~~~
watmough
"temporarily".

If enough people hate this, they may slow the intro, but this may be the worst
of all Clust __ __s, the one that fails, but is hailed as a glorious success.

------
BoppreH
One unmentioned feature I loved is the ability to hide the chat and "invite"
sidebars. On the lower left corner there's two unobtrusive buttons to toggle
chat and invite (does anyone use that?) visibility.

I'm still waiting for a UI where I can just drag the components I need, a la
browser's toolbars.

~~~
twodayslate
I have Gtalk and Tasks. I don't see why I can't put them on the same sidebar
though. There should be an option for that?

------
ernestipark
The compact view looks much much nicer than the dense version of the preview
theme they have now. Hopefully they'll add a few darker lines here and there
too.

------
orky56
I'm very impressed. They really solved a lot of the issues I had with preview,
such as multiple views for different screen sizes/resolutions.

Overall, the highly visual approach allows some hidden but useful features to
emerge for the average user. However, I'm still on the fence about the
excessive padding on the individual email items.

~~~
mauriciob
That padding is one of the only issues I have with the new layout. They should
have left an option with the classic padding.

~~~
raldi
Did you watch the video? At 0:23, they click the little gear and it gives
three different padding options.

When he selects "compact", it looks like the classic padding to me.

~~~
mauriciob
And... I was wrong :)

I just switched to the new look and (after changing the density to "Compact")
I could not notice a difference on the padding.

It was a nice surprise.

Are you working on anything related to this design?

------
rnadna
Web-based "apps" have this great feature: updates require no work on the part
of the user. And they have this terrible bug: updates require no work on the
part of the user. With real (i.e. native) software, users get to decide.
Important deadline approaching? Click "not now" for any and all updates.

------
rayk
Not about GMail, but does anyone else find Google's new blog templates to be
annoying?

Chrome and Firefox optimized away much of the 500msec or less it takes for the
page to render, and I don't want to have to spend that time watching the
loading logo instead. Plus there are unavoidable animations for every page I
try to access, but they're _slow_ and make my netbook lag. I like being able
to access the alternative views, but some of them seem clearly oriented
towards photo blogs and turn into a pastiche of menus and grids, defeating the
point of making the blog more usable for the reader (I have to try click on
each one to see what it does?). /complain

~~~
gujk
I you use a mobile browser, you won't get the 0.5 sec delay, you'll
immediately see "Dynamic Views are not supported on your device".

------
VonLipwig
I mostly don't like it.

The left sidebar pops open, thats great!

However, read messages now have a lifeless grey background. The archive
buttons have been replaced with icons. I can now only see half the amount of
messages per screen due to the increased spacing.

Its disappointing.

~~~
krmmalik
Yeah, i have to say mostly when new UIs are introduced i generally like or
prefer them, but this time round im not too happy.

Individual email threads are much harder to distinguish and due to the
increase in information its harder to concentrate on the actual email body
itself.

------
andrewljohnson
I use labels aggressively, but I monitor the numbers next to the labels to see
if I have stuff coming in rapidly. When I tried the new GMail interface, it
hid a bunch of important labels, requiring me to hover over that section to
check if I was getting emails from particular projects and groups of people.
That broke my email workflow, so I had to switch back to the old interface.

Hopefully, the comments I sent to the GMail team didn't fall on deaf ears - I
really don't want to rework how I do email.

It must be tough working on a product that is so core to people's life and
work. The changes in XCode never sit well with me either.

~~~
jamesgeck0
You can drag and drop labels out of the "More" box into the main view. I don't
know if there's a limit to how many labels you can do that with though.

------
cpara
I've read the threads re: netbook but haven't seen my problem with the new
look. I chose Compact for the density, but when I Reply, write a return email
to someone - lo and behold, I can no longer scroll up to hit Send. It is
hidden by the new icon bar - surely I am not the only netbook user with this
problem? 10.2 inch screen, Gateway computer, Chrome browser...yeah.

Any ideas? I won't change this netbook to the 'new look' unless I can figure
this out - guess I'll have to use Thunderbird or something. I'd rather not.

Thanks for any help.

------
ericd
They seem to have fixed the speed issues, which was my main gripe with gmail
up to this point.

F'ing terrible in the usability department, though, especially on the default
super-spaced view - it makes it much harder to scan quickly, and lets you see
half the number of emails in the same vertical space.

The wide open space with no border between panes is also really annoying.
Adding a border-right on the folder pane via firebug/whatever brings it almost
back to being bearable.

------
twodayslate
I am liking the way their new design is going. In my opinion it is getting
better and better. Conversations are much cleaner now and easier to read.

------
yaix
Help!! With all the none-scrolling stuff the new design has, on my netbook I
have only some 600x300 pixels left to see the actual email message.

To read the email message is the reasong I am opening Gmail!

I don't care about a static user account bar, a static search bar, a static
action buttons bar, a static folder and tags sidebar, etc. All that c%#p
should be scrolling! It's a web page!

Is there any fix for this in the Gmail settings?

~~~
yaix
I am serious. Is there an option in the settings to make all elements scroll
again? It's not like I am the only one who prefers a small screen.

The many position:fixed elements is a major flaw in this new design.

------
kablamo
You can use a theme thats similar to that video. Its been available in the
Themes section of Gmail settings for several months.

I find it a huge improvement.

------
pg_bot
Display density doesn't work in my browser (chrome on a Macbook pro) it says
it only works on larger displays. Since my browser takes up all of my screen's
real estate I don't understand why I am having this issue. As a side note, if
you want to see a failure of customer service design, take a look at their
feedback form page and count the number of unnecessary form fields.

------
aantix
Why don't the mail message rows alternate in color?

------
adamdecaf
I hope there will be a way to keep the current look, all of the new themes
from Google are terrible. (As many people have stated before.)

------
jebblue
If they fix the black menu back to what it is now nice easy to read white
background then I'll be glad to switch.

------
aniketpant
I love the new UI. The conversation view and the way the content flows
together. It's just brilliant.

Only one complaint, I want to have a more loose display than the current one,
I want 'Cozy' rather than 'Compact' regardless of my screen size. I should be
able to change that somewhere.

~~~
libraryatnight
Display Density is adjustable when clicking the gear icon button in the upper
right for me. I keep it cozy, too.

~~~
xtal
On lower resolutions, the Comfortable and Cozy options aren't available. I
much prefer the look of Comfortable but am forced to use Compact.

~~~
libraryatnight
Ouch, that is unfortunate.

------
amitparikh
I hope they have tested this new design with some of the old "Gmail Labs"
modules. I've been using the "Right-Side Chat" Labs module for a long time,
and so far, using the Preview Theme, resizing my browser window sometimes
causes me to lose my chat box.

------
curiousfiddler
I was looking to disable chat from the mail view for long. This helps. Mail ==
Mail now!

------
mikeshark
Personally I've switched to Offline Gmail in Chrome, it's super fast and
minimal.

------
purephase
The conversation view is much, much better. I can't wait to check it out.

------
ImprovedSilence
Um, does anyone know how to carry over a custom color scheme? or is it
possible to create new custom colors, I don't see that option in themes...

------
danmaz74
I just tried it live, and I found that when reading a message the ads on the
right are really too prominent. Is it just my impression?

~~~
gujk
What is an "ad"?

~~~
danmaz74
I meant advertising.

By the way, I found out that that effect is very marked only when zooming in
the browser. At zoom=100% the ads aren't so invasive.

------
joejohnson
I'm seeing ads now, which I have blocked for a while with AdBlock. Does anyone
know how to block ads in the new gmail?

~~~
Raphael
EasyList subscription. This filter rule was triggered:

    
    
        &view=ad&

~~~
joejohnson
I'm not sure I understand. I'm have EasyList selected (and I just updated it).
I'm still seeing the ads at the very top of the inbox. Are you saying
"&view=ad&" was triggered? Or that I need to add this and it will be
triggered?

~~~
Raphael
It was triggered.

------
bilban
Damn it! The new Gmail is broken for me on Firefox Nightly on Debian Squeeze
AMD64. I can't open any messages!

------
itsnotvalid
Beside losing Buzz I don't see much stuff happening. Besides, Google Reader is
losing notes as well.

------
h6165
The biggest problem with the new UI is that it is entirely new. I have to
learn it all over again.

------
djhworld
The font on the 'compose' and 'send' buttons seem a little blurry to me

------
tambourine_man
The blog doesn't work on iPhone 3G btw.

~~~
anothermachine
Google came out with this "Dynamic Styles" thing for Blogger a few weeks ago,
which completely broke Blogger blogs for mobile devices, with no way to
disable it.

------
ashcairo
Runs slow on Firefox. Don't upgrade.

------
euroclydon
I wonder what they did to break iPad flick to scroll on that blog post?

------
kahawe
> _Better search_

I seriously hope they would _FINALLY_ include some sort of sub-string search
as the lack of it really makes their mail search pretty much unusable unless
you know exactly what you are looking for but I have a huge mail archive that
goes a good 10+ years back - and that is google we are talking about, of all
companies.

I would be totally fine if they limit me to just 2 or 3 sub-string searches a
day and then just grep through my mails if that's what it takes but come on
people, this feature has been requested ages ago and there surely are ways to
implement this without breaking your servers' backs.

------
patrickod
So how long before this shows up for Google Apps users? While I love Apps it's
annoying that we're second hand users in terms of product releases.

~~~
aprescott
I was somewhat surprised to learn: it's available immediately. 2 minutes after
they posted on Twitter that it's now available to everyone, I followed their
steps of closing Tasks and Chat windows, hit refresh, clicked the link. Done.
(You may need to be on the Rapid Release track.)

~~~
hasanove
I also had to close Tasks in bottom right corner, to see a button to switch to
new design.

------
mcherm
So, is this real, or is this a spoof of the mess with Google Reader?

(PS: I know whether this is real; I'm just phrasing it this way for ironic
impact.)

