How to cope with the Gmail redesign

[pg]

This article made me finally bite the bullet and convert. I've been using the new design for the last several hours. I happen to have a window open with the old design, so I know it's not merely my imagination that the new one is worse. Not enormously so, but definitely worse.

Read mails are more legible in the old version, because there is more contrast between black letters and the old light blue background than between black and the new gray.

It's also harder to parse the list of emails visually in the new design. In the old one, the 3D checkbox acted like a bullet point, and the name of the sender was closer to it. Now the heavy checkbox has been replaced by a faint square, and the sender's name is about 2x further away from it. So scanning my email is no longer like scanning a bulleted list. It's just rows of text.

That's a big deal functionally. There's a reason bulleted lists exist as a format, and removing the bullet points from the average bulleted list would make it significantly less legible.

It's a bummer to see Google making things work worse in order to make them look better (or worse still, more consistent). That's the sort of thing big companies do. Which I suppose Google now is. But they had at least been trying not to act like one before.

[gleb]

I think the reason is simpler - Larry Page is in charge now. His approach is to trust the designers not users. And that approach results in products designers like and users don't. See http://vimeo.com/29965463 for discussion on how things have changed in Google w.r.t design.

[stan_rogers]

This almost exactly matches not only my complaints, but the feedback I gave when Google claimed to be interested in such things.

Another thing I've observed is that non-expert users are utterly confused by the various actions not being visible (though greyed out) when documents are not selected—they simply assume that they will never exist and don't see them after a selection is made. I can't see any way in which the new design is as good as, let alone better than, the old.

[statictype]

or worse still, more consistent

So you believe that consistency among UI screens should take a backseat to usefulness? I agree with this but I know there are a lot of people who believe the opposite - that consistency is more important to good design. And this isn't limited to big companies.

[jacoblyles]

In the new design, controls are links instead of buttons. It's harder to find them, as they stand out less.

Also, I miss the use of colors to delineate between elements of a different kind. In the new version, they only use light and dark.

[twelvechairs]

Its a constant wonder how Google and other large companies can't actually realise that their design departments are not doing a great job. You'd think that Apple's successes might actually make them realise that great interfaces (especially if they can outdo the competition) are hugely valuable.

Some things about the new design are defensible, however others are definitely not. My particular pet hate is that all the things that are not mail services (but you can still access within gmail) are splattered around all corners of the screen. Chat is in one corner (along with 'gadgets' - whatever they are). G+ is in the opposite. And in a third (behind a button that is very unhelpfully named 'gmail') are contacts and tasks. Where is the sense in that???

[Duff]

Apple makes plenty of UI nightmares. Examples include Snow Leopard firewall configuration dialog, the leather versions of iCal/Contacts, the finder, etc.

[andrewfelix]

>large companies can't actually realise that their design departments are not doing a great job

There are obviously a lot of unhappy users with legitimate gripes. But Google would probably be looking at the growth of Gmail to validate what ever the design department is doing. That growth is pretty impressive.

[TamDenholm]

Personally I really like the new design, despite the fact I have actually implemented most of the things mentioned in the article. However, I thinks that this shows that gmail is an amazing app that it provides this level of customisation, and this doesn't include any of the stuff from the labs feature set.

[sho_hn]

> I thinks that this shows that gmail is an amazing app that it provides this level of customisation

That made me chuckle, using a desktop email app. Funny/curious/thought-provoking how different standards apply to web apps still.

[vl]

It all good advise, exactly to the point what I use except for the theme - I use "Soft gray" - it's works better with preview pane lab and gets rid of the huge red button.

[davux]

I ended up leaving Gmail a few months ago (knowing this was coming). The new design works really poorly with browser zoom. I need to view the page zoomed in to 300% or so most of the time (I don't have good vision). Zooming really worked pretty well on all of the past iterations, up until this one. There are a number of panes that stay visible when scrolling, so the content area on the web page becomes really really small. (I'm not usually one to complain just because things changed, I didn't like the mystery meat icons either, but I can get over something trivial like that.) It just doesn't work.

I couldn't really figure out where else to go, but OWA 2010 doesn't have these problems, so I went to Office 365 for my own domain (and forwarded Gmail). I never thought I'd pay for email but considering how vital mail is, having real support is a nice piece of mind.

I remember how awesome webmail seemed in 2003 (when I switched from Outlook to Gmail), but now that I've gone back to Outlook, I see all the awesome stuff that I was missing. This is really not to credit Outlook though, I'm sure Gmail (threading) influenced them greatly in the past 8 years. I know you can just use Outlook+Gmail, but sadly IMAP isn't nearly as good as Exchange.

[eternalban]

Try http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html

[grinich]

Given that email is vital to you, why did you expect you wouldn't pay for it?

[justincormack]

You can use Exchange rather than Imap with Gmail.

[dancesdrunk]

I quite like the new design, and I've been using it since it was in "beta" a couple of months ago.

It certainly provided a couple of frustrating days before I got used to it, but I find it much more soft on the eyes - to me the old layout now looks pretty harsh; giving the impression of being just "functional".

A lot of non-technical folks I work (and live!) with find the new design much, much more pleasing. Bear in mind these are the folks that use hotmail, yahoo etc - so they really are after the "eye candy" more than the functionality; and with google's new social push I can assume this is now the target audience.

My only complaint would be about the icons; regardless of wether you've used Gmail before - you will get caught out; a few days ago it took me a good few minutes before I could find out how to get to my contacts.

[ck2]

I am absolutely furious how my account was forced today to the new theme - it's hideous.

I've tried several stylish options to no avail, I miss the old dark layout with high contrast buttons.

Even the dark theme has a bright white message pane for no reason.

It also runs very sluggishly compared to the old UI, not sure why.

Well this should give me the kick in the pants to get off gmail anyway.

[kevingadd]

It's slow because all the UI elements in the new themes have alpha transparency and rounded corners. It increases the amount of work your browser has to do to paint it tremendously (though GPU acceleration will help).

[kfury]

I designed the original Gmail UX and I have to admit I'd changed every pref in my accounts exactly as Jason did. Good call.

[pg]

You did a great job. I didn't realize how quietly good the old design was till I looked at it side by side with the new one.

[rachelbythebay]

Aha! I must thank you for your original design. I have a question, though: did you intend for people to frequently click "select unstarred" (or similar) and [archive] at the top to cull the list? I used to use it that way to deal with the flood of mail coming in (prod lists, oncall pages, etc.) and it always just felt right. I've always wondered if that was intentional or just something I happened to land on.

When they pulled that out in 2010, that was the beginning of the end for me. "0.07% of people use select unstarred", apparently.

[vidarh]

Too bad they ruined it with this redesign. The old one was pleasant and unobtrusive and overall great.

The new one is making seriously consider leaving Gmail...

[jasoncrawford]

Flattered to hear that--thanks, Kevin.

[kennethcwilbur]

I have never been so frustrated with a UI redesign as I have been with Gmail and Analytics. Unfortunately, I was already using all of the settings pointed out in this post, and I still can't get comfortable with the new design. I can't separate how much of that frustration comes from the large degree of change and how much comes from my long history of use, but the frustration is huge.

I know that many Google employees were similarly frustrated when they were eating their dog food last august. Yet the new look was rolled out anyway.

So I can only assume that the company had solid UI data showing that their target group of users prefer the new design. And I can therefore only assume that the target group of users does not include users like me.

Consequently, there is an opportunity here for somebody to do email right for the people frustrated by the new gmail redesign. I would happily pay for an email interface that makes sense and doesn't change against my wishes... especially if it doesn't require switching to microsoft.

Until then, I will be very grateful to the person who pointed out the 'slow-connection' interface is still available.

[sb]

Hm, it seems strange though that they're not keeping the old interface, which is what many people were using Gmail in the first place (even if their target group prefers the new interface.) Come to think of it, it's also kind of sad that HN users are obviously not their target group...

[snowwrestler]

I really didn't like the new Analytics interface when they first rolled out the optional beta. I switched a few months ago to gain access to real-time measuring, and now I love it. For me at least, it just took some time to adjust.

[teach]

My biggest new-Gmail-design pet-peeve is that the Display Density setting is only respected if your browser window is wide enough.

I prefer the "Comfortable" setting. I have a 22" monitor at 1680x1050, but I don't have my browser window maximized (it only takes up 65-75% of the screen width).

So, GMail has helpfully reduced my display density to "Cozy", ignoring my setting.

As far as I know, there's no way to "fix" this; it's a known issue but there's no workaround other than making my browser window wider.

[notJim]

It took my months of using the new design before I realized this. My impression before was simply that the design was “broken” on my desktop computer until one day I resized the window and discovered this issue.

[no_more_death]

Yes, many webapps do not take into account that modern screens are quite large enough to display multiple windows comfortably.

[jan_g]

I'm obviously in minority here, but I don't stress too much about the design as long as unread messages are in bold text. But this might be due to me working mostly in terminals and text/code editors, where design never was a top priority.

The things I care about most in gmail are:

  1. reliability, speed and lots of space
  2. good spam filtering
  3. web view of various office documents (I used to cringe when someone sent me .doc or .xls, not anymore)
  4. fast search which also includes gtalk conversations (invaluable)

If one or two of these things goes away, then I'll probably switch.

[andrewfelix]

I was so busy using gmail I barely noticed the transition. Which for me says everything. Great design shouldn't be noticed, it should just work.

Obviously this is just one anecdote. But for me gmail is still the indispensable tool it always was. For all its shortcomings it is an amazing product.

[Jach]

I'm finding this hard to believe. You didn't notice when the Send button went from the bottom of the message to the top? Maybe you meant that you noticed but didn't find it jarring enough to cause a lot of confusion?

[ajtaylor]

I HATE HATE HATE the new design! I was dreading the day they took away the old look, but these tips go a long way to making gmail usable for me again. Thanks!

[ticks]

When I read this headline, I assumed Google had redesigned it again... didn't realise people were still using the old design.

Personally, the redesign pushed me back to Thunderbird and I ended up deleting thousands of emails. It was quite liberating.

[no_more_death]

I loved the new design. Much less clutter. A service I use every waking moment need not label everything. I like the direction of Google's design efforts.

The Google+ design will continue to evolve, I'm sure (it is not quite there yet).

[Caligula]

Its not just GMAIL. Google analytics is painfully ugly. The first screen before showed a list of all the sites and traffic. Now it shows just the list of accounts. Its awful. There is no way anymore to use the classic design.

Also, once I am in google analytics it is just a UI mess. They cram every feature possible and make it unintelligible. They are ruining the UI for gmail,google search and google analytics.

[conradfr]

I must be using wrong because I have to do so more clicks with the new Analytics design to see things I want, it's frustrating.

[surgi]

I also hate the new design, even after few hours I've spent trying to get used to it. With all the necessary settings (compact mode, text buttons etc.), the main flaw stays - theres no freaking border between message body and ads! C'mon Google, this is just too obvious. Wonder how users will switch to some other webmail or desktop clients, how many of them will install some ad-blockers, just because of this. You realise, Google, that this would mean actually less clicking on your ads? Speaking of intentional clicks here.

[dirkdk]

besides the default theme and the high contrast theme, all others are useless and look like the work of a 5 year old. Design has a function, namely to make things clear and give the user a good experience.

[soulclap]

I agree. Really makes me wonder if all their themes have been made by developers (like me). 'Work of a 5 year old', exactly.

[jazzychad]

I know I was probably 1 of 10 people that actually used (and liked!) the Terminal theme with all green monospaced text... sadly that is now gone, and Terminal theme is now just a lame white on black with variable-width font. bummer :(

[ominous]

Yep. Only a blinking shell prompt remains, under "Google" (top left)

[xtacy]

I use the following changes to the style sheet for some more colour contrast:

    /* Increase contrast on some arrows */
    .T-I-ax7.T-I-JE .T-I-J3 {
        opacity: 0.1 !important;
    }

    /* Make new chat highlight red instead of blue */
    .Hz .k, .Hz .n, .Hz .l {
        background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(192, 0, 0) !important;
    }

[TazeTSchnitzel]

oh god, obfuscated CSS...

[halayli]

I stopped using it and moved to Mail.app. I cannot stand in-page scrolling.