

Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy - dannyr
https://plus.google.com/117599103108596130864/posts/47yZLnxcnhv

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citricsquid
> First up is the 'new tab' chicklet in the Chrome tab bar. Somewhere around
> Chrome 16 the '+' disappeared from it, leaving a little ghost of a button
> that, to my mind, wouldn't be recognized for what it was by a user who
> hadn't already formed their mental model on earlier versions of Chrome.

I'd noticed this and it was very irritating! I assumed it was a bug and for
whatever reason the image was missing, not that they had intentionally removed
it. That's nonsensical to me, without the + being there it indicates...
nothing. His point is exactly right.

~~~
ianox
The lack of the '+' was annoying to me at first. I don't seem to miss it
anymore though, but then I do use the keyboard a lot for opening up new tabs.

~~~
untog
We all know Chrome very well, though. If you launched it for the first time
it's very unclear what that button does- and given that the only thing it
_does_ do is open a tab, why remove the +?

~~~
tubes
I think in a couple of months there will be a "+1" button at the top bar of
Chrome so you can click it to "like" any page.. And having a "+" button next
to it would've been confusing.

~~~
psweber
Mind blown. Also, I hate that you might be right.

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CharlieA
Search results not carrying over to Google News when you click the black
header tab is something that drove me crazy for a good week until I trained
myself to use the left-side menu for switching between result types.

It doesn't make sense, particularly when "News" is the ONLY tab which doesn't
carry the search terms over. Try it with Images, YouTube and Maps; wonderful.
I wouldn't necessarily expect convention to follow with Gmail or Documents,
sure, but NEWS? Come on!

The missing + on Chrome made me think I had a screwy update.

~~~
guynamedloren
> The missing + on Chrome made me think I had a screwy update.

I thought the same. Now that I know it was intentional, it actually kind of
bothers me. Seems like something is missing. Fortunately, shortcuts mean I
almost never have to look up there :)

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guynamedloren
I'm most confused about Google's decision to remove the links from the logos.
This is a convention engrained in the interwebs and I can't come up with a
single reason why they would change it. Sure maybe inexperienced users
wouldn't know the functionality exists, but when has that ever been a reason
to remove a feature?

I think there was a HN discussion about this recently, but I missed it.
Anybody know why they made this decision?

~~~
CharlieA
Purely speculation, but it seems like the only reason they'd do this is to
free up the space for a future use case? While it will probably annoy/stump a
few people for a second or two, ultimately people will just learn not to click
on the logo.

At that point, the Google logo could become... err... well they tried to turn
it into an all-google-properties dropdown previously, so who knows, maybe
they'll try again later?

~~~
RollAHardSix
"While it will probably annoy/stump a few people for a second or two,
ultimately people will just learn not to click on the logo."

No trust me, you will try and click it everyday. My former college had, and
still has, a link-less logo; that didn't stop anyone from trying to click it.
It was actually a routine point of conversation in the beginning web classes
about just how bad of a design flaw that was because the rest of the web adds
a hyperlink to logo's.

If you have a company-esque logo, it should always, always, always take you to
either the landing page; or your personal account page if in a logged-in
state; depending on your personal needs.

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dhx
The + would have been removed from the Chrome UI because it reduces Google's
claim to the "+" mark in their Google+ branding. Google wants people to think
"Google+" when they see a button with a + on it (not "create new tab").

~~~
vasco
I think of addition and I don't see that changing any time soon.

~~~
romland
I don't see why that would stop them for trying. For instance, search and
Google are interchangeable in many discussions. ;)

The above is a bit tongue in cheek. That said, I see where grandparent is
coming from. Chrome is Google's web-browser, and these Google+ icons are very
often near the top of your browser. I can see how they could come to the
conclusion that this could save some confusion. Say, friend calls to help and
says "Click the plus sign at the top of your browser"...

Now, I don't think it's a good (or bad) decision. But the fact that I cannot
click the logotypes is annoying me to no end.

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twelvechairs
Its not just Google - most 'UI/UX experts' are actually really poor. Look at
the mobile phone world for instance - it wasn't until the iphone that most
people realised that every major company had overlooked the possibilities....

Company owners need not just to employ 'experts' but actually take an interest
in these things themselves, which is rare. Otherwise you tend to end up with
these kind of highly qualified fools.

I miss Google's early (engineer-led) minimalism...

------
jrockway
I've been using the logo-without-link UI for about two months, and I no longer
even think about clicking the logo. It no longer registers as something that
would make sense to do.

The designs of the individual applications provide stronger action buttons
than a generic "reset" button would. This encourages users to be more
efficient; instead of "returning home" after reading an email, you'll click
"Archive" and have less clutter in your inbox. Similarly, Google+ provides
many choices for what to do next. Maybe you want to look at your circles or
photos instead of your stream. The new UI makes them all equally easy.

I feel like people use the logo as a "I'm bored, show me new stuff" button,
but that is pointless because the Google apps automatically update as new
stuff becomes available for you. Save yourself a useless click.

I wouldn't have made this change, but it makes a lot of sense if you think
about it.

(As for the + going missing in Chrome... I can't even begin to explain that
one.)

------
adaml_623
Has anyone else been confused by the fact that in gmail when you are viewing
an email there are two buttons with arrows pointing up and to the left. One
takes you back to the inbox and the other replies to the email. One is curvy
the other has a right angle. One is on the left and one is on the right.
Neither have labels. Can I go back to the old design now please.

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rusua
The new Gmail is worse than the last one. I have dropped a few feedback lines.
A few examples:

\- The decoupling of reply box and the email "cards". \- The removal of colors
in the names, which was very useful to guide yourself through the different
actors in a email conversation.

Just to new a few. The new Gmail pretends to be better, but it just can't cut
it off.

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rralian
Honestly, google's UI for many things is just awful. I recently had to help an
aunt who was trying to import contacts from her old gmail account into her new
gmail account. It's a simple enough task if you're on our side of the digital
divide, but it's impossible for anyone who isn't "good with computers." Of
course the documentation for doing this was woefully out of date and
unhelpful, so I couldn't just point her to that. Even the simple step of
signing out of your gmail account is totally hidden and only available when
you just try clicking on things (wich "we" do, but "they" don't). To get to
your contacts you click on the red word "Gmail" (obvious, huh?), and then you
have to click on "more", and then "export" (export what?). Absolutely none of
this would be obvious to a non-savvy user. At the least they could provide up-
to-date documentation or a more useful "help" feature. Gmail is great for me
as a savvy user who employs all of the keyboard shortcuts, ala vim. But I
can't blame the older generation for just giving up whenever they need to do
anything slightly out of the ordinary, because we're just not
designing/developing products that are usable to them.

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benaston
Agree wholeheartedly with this post. Thing is; I have _never_ come across a
so-called user experience expert that had a single particularly insightful
thing to say about a user interface.

Indeed, my experience has been that I get more insight from "lay" people than
these guys.

I can't even be bothered to count the number of different items on the Google
menu. Actually I just have... it's 17 items (for me), plus an "even more"
item. I'd love to see the analytics for that one!

Now, you might forgive them because, well, if you have lots of products then
you need a way to navigate to them... EXCEPT the millions they spend every
year on making menu-based navigation completely redundant by their world-
beating search.

If I want Google Maps, I will either type "maps" into Chrome's address bar,
which auto-completes it, OR (as most non technies will do, I hazard a guess) I
will type something (e.g "maps") directly into Google.

The unfortunate thing is that this is not just Google. It 99.9% of websites I
have ever visited. OK, so most small companies do not have the resources for a
dedicated UX person, but the only big-company website I can think of with a
sane UX is Apple. Is it really all that hard? Actually I suspect it is - it's
Conway's Law in full effect.

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iqster
What I find really shocking is how the UX of the main google search page has
deteriorated for me. It gives me all sorts of crap that doesn't make any sense
... and I don't even know how to complain since all the content is
personalized to me (e.g. photographs). Google's search page used to be an
Internet treasure ... for me, it is now another example of how the quest for
revenue growth destroys beautiful products.

~~~
defen
Not just confusing...also buggy. I would say that about 1% of the time Google
Instant just totally fails for me - I type a word or phrase and hit enter, and
I just get an empty white box where the search results should be. To fix it I
have to manually click the blue search icon.

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danabramov
I like the plus label removed.

For someone who _never ever_ used a tabbed browser, “+” doesn't mean “new
tab”. It doesn't even mean ”add a thing“. It means “sum”.

Web browser is the most basic application to use this icon.

The icon just doesn't help because user has no prior knowledge of the metaphor
anyway.

~~~
lurker17
+1

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GnomeChomsky
My two biggest annoyances with Gmail:

One of my accounts has this bar at the top reminding me that a couple accounts
are linked. It says this notice will remain for a few days, then disappear...
it's been there now for 3 or 4 months.

Secondly, Gmail auto-trims signatures. This is annoying by itself, because I
don't think Google should get to decide, by fiat, that signatures are passe.
Worse, the trimming often trims much more than intended -- sometimes whole
messages. It's totally unprofessional when e-mails to clients & partners go
out sans signature, closing, and the bottom half of my e-mail.

Naturally, getting a hold of Google for help with this is a laughable
Sisyphean endeavor.

~~~
kfury
I agree. The auto-trimming of the signature is another good example of going
to far. Gmail used to elide repeated content, and would grey the signature.
Eliding it behind a click changes the emotional tone of the messages that
people send to you, and that's a step further than a UX should take.

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brildum
The last few days, gmail has been a pain for me to use specifically because I
can no longer click on the logo to return to my inbox after viewing an email
thread. Navigating my mouse to the "Inbox" link in the nav menu is difficult
because I have to actively distinguish "Inbox" between all the other
categories that look similar, whereas I can click on the logo without
thinking.

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preavy
I was more annoyed by the little head to the left of the tabs in Chrome which
indicates the current profile. I don't use profiles. But I've just discovered
that the head goes away if you delete the sample profiles that they created
when they added the feature. Duh.

------
ChrisNorstrom
"You will like it! You will get used to it! I know what's best!" The designers
will scream to their users.

This may be, just the beginning.

It's not just the "+" missing from the new tab button or the logo issue, it's
a LOT of things. Gmail's new "blank sheet of paper" look. The annoying
notifications of Google+ that follow you around. I just logged into analytics
yesterday and saw the new redesign and I just... my jaw literally dropped. Who
the Hell did this?! Is this is a joke? A bad dream? What did we do? Who at
Google did we piss off to deserve this? More importantly what's going on in
the world of design? Everywhere I look I see designs that look like the crap I
used to turn out.

For a moment I even ventured to think that maybe that radioactive water from
Japan finally hit the west coast in full force.

Google's new redesign combined with Kotaku, Gawker, and TechCrunch's new
redesign, Ubuntu's Unity and Gnome's, and the new Yahoo mail is making 2011 +
2012 the beginning of an era of atrocious UI. Even Microsoft is joining in, by
removing the start button. Maybe the designer shortage last year caused
companies to hire up a lot of beginner designers.

More likely this is all because Steve Jobs passed away and now every designer
in town is trying to take his place. The king of UX has died, the throne is up
for grabs, and everyone's eyeing it. Desperately trying to mimic Steve's
"forcefully creative" attitude and ignoring all logic and design laws, these
new designers are hell bent on overly simplifying and minimizing every
interface until there's nothing left. Desperate for fame and glory the
designers will infiltrate every company they can find that's hiring. "You will
like it! You will get used to it! I know what's best!" The designers will
scream to their users.

I bet you it will get worse.

~~~
untog
_I just logged into analytics yesterday and saw the new redesign and I just...
my jaw literally dropped. Who the Hell did this?!_

I'm not just being contrarian when I say this: I like the new Analytics
design. I also happen to like the new Gmail design.

I guess what I'm saying is that not everyone hates these changes- I don't need
a designer to scream at me to convince me so.

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pbz
I got used to the new gmail thread display, although I agree that the old way
was more suggestive, but the missing + in Chrome still bugs me.

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johnx123-up
Currently there's no quick link to switch to Google Groups from homepage. I
don't know if they're willing to kill Usenet and Groups for G+

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shingen
He's spot on. The removal of the plus to create a new tab in Chrome is bad
design, period.

I hadn't noticed the lack of the logo link until someone else pointed it out.
Why would anyone reduce ease of navigation, particularly from an object that
is going to be there anyway?

I use Gmail as my main email application, and have since they first launched
it. They've started to annoy me with the interface changes. I think they've
lost some of the intuitive simplicity that made Gmail great. It feels about
10% like Yahoo's extraordinarily horrific web email, and that's a big step
down.

~~~
kibwen
After the full roll-out of Gmail's new UI, which was seemingly obligatory, my
UI reverted to the old interface within a week. Perhaps it has something to do
with the fact that I opted-in to the new UI when it was still in beta, and
then opted out after quickly becoming dissatisfied with it (I just really
can't get over how laggy the mouseover animations are).

In any case, I've noticed that my Gmail querystring looks like this:

    
    
      ?ui=2&shva=1
    

Perhaps adding the ui=2 parameter to your own querystring will cause it to
revert to the old interface?

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lurker17
Doesn't work for me :-(

~~~
rufibarbatus
Nor to me. Interestingly, using <http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1> redirects
to <http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2> !

