
Customize Gmail's Buttons: Replace Icons With Text - cleverjake
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/03/customize-gmails-buttons-replace-icons.html
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jaysonelliot
Icons are mnemonics, not signposts. Once you know what a button does, an icon
can be a great way to quickly recognize it again.

On their own, though, they're terrible. They invite confusion, even after a
user has learned what they mean.

An icon in conjunction with text is a wonderful way to help users find things
quickly. If I have to choose to design and interface with only an icon or only
text, though, I'll go with text.

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scott_s
Theses icons, however, weren't as visually distinctive as others. I always had
to pause for a moment to figure out which one was the spam button. I've
changed back to text.

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meow
They should have colored the spam button red. I fumble a lot with these new
buttons. I don't understand why the designers are against color in the new
interface. It's like watching a bad CGI movie or a video game with no details
where every surface looks bland gray or dark...

~~~
skeletonjelly
Just like Visual Studio 11. Who exactly is asking for all these monochromatic
icons? Are there AB tests done that favour them?

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streptomycin
This feels like an admission of failure. A good UI wouldn't need an option
like this.

~~~
timothya
Seems just to be a simple customizable feature. Do you think that the
different whitespace options in Gmail are also an "admission of failure"? To
me, they just provide different options to suit different people's visual
preferences.

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lzh-ng
The whitespace options are especially grating to me. Gmail offers 3 options,
all of which are poorly spaced. Configurability isn't a replacement for good
design.

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polyfractal
I'm still on the "classic" theme, and throw a bitchfit over feedback every
time they try to force me into the new themes. Some of my accounts have been
switched over to the new themes with no "classic" option, while others still
have it available.

I'll use classic until they fix the new crap, or allow me to continue using
classic indefinitely.

~~~
chimeracoder
I just threw in the towel and switched to mutt. I'd been meaning to try it out
for a while anyway, and this was exactly the opportunity I needed to motivate
me.

(For anyone who's curious to try it out- I couldn't be happier, and mutt +
offlineimap + mairix has ended up being the perfect combination for me... far
better than Gmail web was at its best).

~~~
AndrewDucker
Yeah, I use Thunderbird as my gmail client (or k9 on Android)

Because not having a three pane layout is just frustrating.

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follower
Are you aware of the "Preview Pane" labs option in the Google Mail settings?

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twodayslate
Why not have both?

This seems much nicer looking:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dheionainndbbpoacp...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dheionainndbbpoacpnopgmnihkcmnkl)

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jes5199
finally! Those icons are indistinct and basically meaningless.

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FratKabula
Google, is becoming more and more like Microsoft. If they can't decide,
they're essentially dumping that decision on the user in the guise of a
choice.

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cleverjake
Hrm, I prefer the new look (with icons), but it seems that most people I have
read do not. Not sure if I am a minority or just a silent majority.

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tristan_juricek
Why not allow icons and text (a la nearly ever Mac toolbar I've used)? That
would seem, to me, the easiest way to "skim" a toolbar.

Icons can be smaller (like the document editor toolbar), but it doesn't seem
like Gmail's really pushing the size limit.

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happyrock
All they need is to bring back the clickable Google logo for getting back to
the Inbox.

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Dysiode
Now all they need to do is make the settings page match the rest of the site.
Notably putting the Save button at the top of the page after making everyone
get used to not having to scroll around to find the Send button.

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chintan
s/Google Wage/Google Wave/

~~~
lanstein
It was wrong in the source email, was wondering if someone was going to catch
this.

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aprescott
Let's not talk about Google Apps users and this setting, shall we? :)

Off-topic: fun to see that someone else got emails about Wave being sunsetted
from the "Google Wage" sender.

~~~
aprescott
Well, it seems I spoke too soon! When they first announced this on the
official blog it wasn't available to me (an Apps user), but now it is.

