The New G-Mail Look is Awful

[go_gordon]

It's different but not too bad.

 

[silvan4now]

my question is why don't they leave something that was working 100% and change it? i mean that is what i always loved at gmail....the simplicity and not the headache of animation that you get with yahoo for example.

 

[DirkGently1]

my question is why don't they leave something that was working 100% and change it? i mean that is what i always loved at gmail....the simplicity and not the headache of animation that you get with yahoo for example.

It's still working 100% for me but now it just looks better. What they're aiming for with these changes is consistency across all their services, and i applaud them for that.

If only they would do the same on the Android platform.

 

[Nothinman]

It's still working 100% for me but now it just looks better. What they're aiming for with these changes is consistency across all their services, and i applaud them for that.

If only they would do the same on the Android platform.

It looks like they are going for that too, within reason and still allowing Android devs flexibility in how their apps look. The hard requirement that the ICS default theme be made available on all devices is a sign of that.

 

[pyonir]

now it just looks better.

I completely disagree. It doesn't look better. They are going for more consistency across all their services...okay, I can understand that. But my opinion, and I think it's shared quite a bit, is that it does not look better in the least.

 

[Lifted]

Keep reverting back every time they force me over. I'm sure I'll get used to the new theme if they finally force it on us, but I just don't see any improvement over the current (older) theme. Less info with larger icons doesn't do it for me, especially on a laptop.

 

[MrCrispy]

It was a change made purely to make it look more consistent with ICS on Android. There is absolutely no justification for replacing simple easy to read text with randomly shaped buttons on a product as essential and as widely used as Gmail. Even for experienced users its a change hard to get used to, I can only imagine the millions of people who don't (and never will) use Android shaking their head in frustration.

 

[DirkGently1]

It was a change made purely to make it look more consistent with ICS on Android. There is absolutely no justification for replacing simple easy to read text with randomly shaped buttons on a product as essential and as widely used as Gmail. Even for experienced users its a change hard to get used to, I can only imagine the millions of people who don't (and never will) use Android shaking their head in frustration.

No, it was a change to make it consistent with G+.

And, SHOCK, HORROR...not everyone in the Internet has exactly the same taste in U.I design. How utterly surprising!

Btw, the ICS theme is called Holo and i think it's disgusting. Go figure!

 

[Nothinman]

No, it was a change to make it consistent with G+.

And, SHOCK, HORROR...not everyone in the Internet has exactly the same taste in U.I design. How utterly surprising!

Btw, the ICS theme is called Holo and i think it's disgusting. Go figure!

I don't get an ICS phone until next month but from what I've seen of ICS so far, I like it. I think all of the Android themes from Froyo up are better looking than the alternatives. But then I'm just naturally biased against Apple and MS...

 

[13Gigatons]

Bad Themes, Bad Icons, Buggy and slow. It was definitly slapped togther. I hope the old theme is available for a long time.

Gmail UI should just be left alone.

 

[TechHead87]

Why do these companies do this? Facebook is the biggest violator IMO. It's like the powers-that-be are more indecisive than a woman in a shoe store.

 

[Subyman]

Eh, I use thunderbird. I hate web based email browsers.

 

[nitrous9200]

I don't think it's much worse than the old look especially with compact mode on, but I can't see any improvements compared to before...don't know why they bothered changing it.

All of the previous Gmail refreshes I can remember brought features and/or improved the interface, this latest one doesn't.

 

[Nothinman]

Why do these companies do this? Facebook is the biggest violator IMO. It's like the powers-that-be are more indecisive than a woman in a shoe store.

Because if they don't they look stagnant.

 

[jrocks84]

They need to make the compact look the default, the default look is just bad.

 

[jhansman]

This is why all my Gmail (except what I flag as spam on their server) is forwarded to my Live Mail. I only visit Gmail to clean house once a month.

 

[zCypher]

I got used to the new look after a while, but the buttons are still annoying sometimes. My biggest complaint at this point is the fact that it LAGS. Seriously, wtf?

 

[wirednuts]

gmail.com is down for me right now

 

[0roo0roo]

I got used to the new look after a while, but the buttons are still annoying sometimes. My biggest complaint at this point is the fact that it LAGS. Seriously, wtf?

eh... the buttons only being on top is still lame.


google as it got big started to lose touch with its users i guess.

 

[pyonir]

I got used to the new look after a while, but the buttons are still annoying sometimes. My biggest complaint at this point is the fact that it LAGS. Seriously, wtf?

The only lag i notice is when you first log in...because of the "chat" feature. I wish you could completely disable that. You can log out, but it still takes the time to load the feature. I even blocked it using AdBlockPlus and it's still hesitates.

 

[Nothinman]

eh... the buttons only being on top is still lame.


google as it got big started to lose touch with its users i guess.

I don't think they lost touch with their users at all. I think they're struggling with the same bs that all large companies have to deal with and at the same time are trying to find a happy medium between their extremely spartan interfaces and having enough features and looks to compete with Apple.

 

[13Gigatons]

I don't think they lost touch with their users at all. I think they're struggling with the same bs that all large companies have to deal with and at the same time are trying to find a happy medium between their extremely spartan interfaces and having enough features and looks to compete with Apple.

No that's NOT it. Google is purposely throwing away an asset for what? The new look is poorly designed and poorly researched. It's being rejected by half of Gmail users. What's the point of alienating half of your users?

Every time I log on they have screwed with the way I log back out or switch to another account. That whole menu needs to be set and left alone for awhile.

 

[Nothinman]

No that's NOT it. Google is purposely throwing away an asset for what? The new look is poorly designed and poorly researched. It's being rejected by half of Gmail users. What's the point of alienating half of your users?

Every time I log on they have screwed with the way I log back out or switch to another account. That whole menu needs to be set and left alone for awhile.

I must be jaded because I hate web apps in general, but when I saw the new look I was surprised at first and then set it compact and moved on. It wasn't different enough for me to care and I like it just the same.

MS alienates almost all of their users with virtually every major release, SP or patch and they seem to be doing just fine.

 

[Lemon law]

I tried the new look until I found I could not see more than one page of stored email so I switched back to the old look. And then I could find that many pages back stored email.

 

[ElFenix]

yeah I am not a fan of the new look. I can read. why make the buttons shitty icons?

yeah i don't like that or the general austerity of it in general. i use labels heavily at work and now they kind of fade into the page. look like someone used a bad eraser on a pencil smudge.

my monitor displays colors, i can see in colors, so use colors to set things off kthx