Google Cleans Up Gmail App With An All-White Redesign (engadget.com) 138
While Gmail on the web was significantly redesigned last year, the app for Android and iOS stayed relatively unchanged, with the exception of an update last year that removed the bold colors in favor of an almost entirely white look. Engadget reports that a redesigned Gmail for mobile is starting to roll out today and it will be available to all Android and iOS users in the coming weeks. Engadget reports: Functionally, the new Gmail mobile app isn't wildly different than what came before. There's a button in the lower-right corner to compose a new email, just like before -- it's just white with a multi-colored "plus" sign, the same glyph that shows up in Gmail and Drive on the web. The iconic top red bar is now white, and the whole top area is a search bar; the old app required tapping a smaller target to get into search. Finally, there's a shortcut right to the account switcher on the main page. Previously, switching accounts required opening the sidebar, but now that option is front and center.
A few features that came to the web version of Gmail make their way to mobile today. Probably most recognizable is that attachment previews will show up below the messages, making it easier to both find messages with attachments and get a sense of the content. For those that prefer to see more messages, Google also has "comfortable" and "compact" density options that remove attachment previews and avatars, respectively. The large red phishing warnings that Gmail on the web shows also now show up in the app. Visually, it looks just like you'd expect if you've tried any of Google's recent mobile apps -- it's basically all white, with the new Google font throughout.
A few features that came to the web version of Gmail make their way to mobile today. Probably most recognizable is that attachment previews will show up below the messages, making it easier to both find messages with attachments and get a sense of the content. For those that prefer to see more messages, Google also has "comfortable" and "compact" density options that remove attachment previews and avatars, respectively. The large red phishing warnings that Gmail on the web shows also now show up in the app. Visually, it looks just like you'd expect if you've tried any of Google's recent mobile apps -- it's basically all white, with the new Google font throughout.
White? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, perfect. So not only does it look more bland**, but now that phones are beginning to move to oleds we get MORE white in the UI? Good thinking!!!
**not sure why everyone seems to think it's good to not having lines denoting the borders of anything, whether it be separators between emails or the edges of a button.
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Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:White? (Score:5, Funny)
"IT'S OKAY TO BE WHITE"
-- Google, 2019
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It fits with their new motto:
"Do the white thing."
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Every gmail UI redesign Google has ever done has decreased the contrast of the elements on the screen. Every time I hear its updating again, I fully expect a "pure" interface that's simply white on white.
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But then I looked at the before and after screenshots and I have to say... the after seems much more straight forward. Having dealt with a number of email apps, the after looks simply like a list of emails. The before looks... weird. The red portions are super exaggerated. It's not bad by any means, but the red seems like overkill to draw
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Are you sure you are not confusing the old and the new. The old design has the red bar at the top, and the clear list of emails. The new one adds some random labels to the list at the top, more crap I need to scroll past.
The old design had clear delimiting lines between mails and it was really obvious where the buttons and other UI elements were. Just the right amount of contrast.
The other big problem with email is lack of dark mode support. HTML mail is almost always a white background.
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As display technology improves the less we need to use everything it can offer, and because the technology is so common place there is no need to show it off.
Early Video games and applications really tried to push the capabilities of the display technology of the time. Which first consisted of two subgroups of upgrades.
1. High Resolution displays (that had a goal of a clean 80 column display)
2. More color display, lower resolution but more colors.
The High Resolution monitors were usually monochrome (as Colo
It's to save on bandwidth (Score:2)
Modern UX design (Score:5, Insightful)
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When all color and darkness has been removed it will be elegant and perfect.
Traditional UX design: Change things (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever it was, make it different.
This is not only a method that ensures work for UI designers. It genuinely works. Most people will recognize "new" vs "old", and want "new". "New" just looks better than "old". Always.
Eventually UIs will have white text on pale grey backgrounds before the next crop of designers develops green text on a black background and we will all know that this new green screen design is the pinnacle of novel user experience development.
Re:Traditional UX design: Change things (Score:5, Interesting)
No, designers are already all-in on green text. Users track green "calls to action" faster than any other color, and feel better about the action being the right one. You ever notice how those fake download sites all have big, green, "Download Now" buttons? It's psychology. (disclaimer: I have run too many of these damn UI/UX user trials)
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I don't know why modern UX designers are so afraid of colours, lines and borders.
A good UX concept for buttons and messages is to use the same colours as traffic lights and road signs:
GREEN = let's go (it's safe to use)
YELLOW = warning/be careful (are you sure you want to use this / it's a warning, I need to read it)
RED = stop (something has happened that made everything stop, you have to read it)
WHITE on BLUE = information, you might find it useful to read it
Can you imagine if traffic lights and road signs
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It's over-reactionary anti-skeuomorphism. Designers collectively woke up, realized wood grain and 3D-contoured buttons have no place in UI, and proceeded to lose their collective minds.
Jokes on them (Score:2)
Seriously UI designers, stop color coding crap so much, especially in games. I had to give up my dream of 1CCing Raiden IV because I kept switching to the wrong powerup.
Re:Modern UX design (Score:5, Insightful)
It's no good. I can still vaguely see some shapes of some controls, and there's an unsightly pile of black text to the left. The UX designers need to keep polishing until everything is a pure, beautiful, white form, unblemished by unsightly distractions.
Re:Modern UX design (Score:5, Insightful)
Still... un... clean!...
*continues frantically scrubbing the UI as it bleeds*
Re:Modern UX design (Score:5, Insightful)
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It's not just Gmail too. Look at YouTube as well. :(
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I can't. By the time everything on the page loads so I can interact with the content I've given up and have gone somewhere else. I swear youtube loads like websites used to on dial-up.
Re: Modern UX design (Score:2, Insightful)
They forced me to upgrade from Gmail to inbox on my phone now I'm getting messages saying I'm going to be forced back to Gmail. Google's biggest problem is they're always changing. No consistency. This isn't about not embracing good change, it's just they seem to have no fuckng idea what they're doing. Google +, hangouts and all the other chat apps they've released and switched and flicked between since Google talk. I was a regular hangouts user and the whole debabcleeant I stopped using their platform. Par
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How much of this is the vast technical resources Alphabet / Google have accumulated over the years needing something to do. Everyone wants to make their mark and instead of incremental improvements, they rely on massive change to stake out a claim. Youtube's problem is largely chasing dollars and wanting to rebrand themselves as TV instead fo what made Youtube great.
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this horrible trend isn't limited to web or smartphone 'apps' either.
game ui (even in shooters and looters) is going through the same clusterfuck redesigns, too.
Re: Modern UX design (Score:1)
Get help
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First of all, it's spelled Skeuomorphic, not Skuemorhphic.
Secondly, Skeuomorphic design [wikipedia.org] is the opposite of the current trend.
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We've gone from vivid intricate icons to stick figures in shades of grey!
Didn't you RTFS? It's going to be stick figures in shades of white. On a white background.
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of listen to what your audience wants
You are not an audience. You are but an insignificant voice in a vast sea of consumers who happily continue using products that these UX designers produce and therefore clearly they must be doing something right because profits aren't down.
Nothing will change from isolated complaints, not when people keep using the software.
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If the forces are pushed on everyone without any choice, of course everyone will keep using it. That's not a good metric because they don't have a fucking choice.
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If design would only be the only problem. Why all this browser-based crap? I haven't encountered any "web app" yet that was better or even on a par with some corresponding desktop app. Most even fail to have basic keyboard shortcuts.
For a while everything was looking fine. We had powerful high-end desktop apps with unlimited undo, customizable shortcuts and menus, and local storage of your valuable information. Then this web madness started and everything reverted to pre 1990 standards. Why?
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Because people are too stupid to do their own backups, because cloud storage means you can access your files from anywhere, because web apps (should) work on almost every device you own that has a modern web browser and because it's easier to share and work on the same files with other people.
For some things, though, I think the same way as you. Every time I start Sketchup, it's trying to push me to use "Sketchup Free" (a browser-based thing) instead of my desktop app. Fuck that!
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I forgot to mention that for a while it also looked as if every application would also be P2P enabled to exchange information on a decentralized network. It worked! And now we're now back to square one with centralized client/server architecture like in the 90s.
So include that into my rant. There are strong, dark forces against personal computing...
Re: Modern UX design (Score:1)
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The current crop of UX designers seem to be following the philosophy of listen to what your audience wants and make sure to avoid that at all cost. We've gone from vivid intricate icons to stick figures in shades of grey!
The problem is that they are "UX designers", not HMI engineers.
UX is a bollocks field made up by Apple to explain why their interfaces were contrary to HMI and HCI wisdom.
Until companies get designers out and engineers in, we'll continue to have horrible interfaces foisted on us... And to be honest, Google are the least worst offenders here.
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A found a box of my old clothes. Other than size issues (shuddup), they came back in style. The new UX/UI's resemble the original Mac. In a few years, the Windows 95 look may be back too. And then the flashing Geocities look with rotating logos... Gag me with a groovy spoon.
Thank God for IMAP (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unfortunately, gmail doesn't really do true IMAP. It presents a IMAP facade that has a number of issues if you start to use IMAP with folders. For one, it does mail de-duplication. Which means you only ever get one copy of your email. If you use IMAP filters that rely on multiple copies that won't work. I am subscribed to some mailing lists with cross-posting and that always screws things up because mail threads are missing mails in one IMAP folder or the other. Your own messages to mailing lists don't show
words (Score:2)
It's a bunch of shit no one needed. I say that without looking, yet without doubt apology or shame.
Well, "no one needed" is not 100% accurate. Can't forget designers who have to look busy at least once a quarter lest people start asking what they cost.
Is it a Flash when it doesn't? (Score:2)
This is the affirmative response to "Your face is too dim in the front facing camera when the screen is dark."
The lighter the screen/alternative-lighting, the better the image of you and the room you are in.
This is not a surprise. Just because you were not using the front camera does not mean it has to go to waste.
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This is the affirmative response to "Your face is too dim in the front facing camera when the screen is dark."
In gmail? Why, so they can monitor your expression while they read your email?
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What better way to determine the reception to their allowed ad mail? Giving feedback can enhance any ad-based revenue stream on both sides.
Additional revenue from a location determining AI being fed images while viewing email could not hurt either.
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If I had an AI that could determine, or at least guess well, at the reaction to any number of messages from friends, family, co-workers, or even complete strangers, being given thousands of examples every minute as an example pool, would it help to have a little extra lighting on the user?
GOD DAMN YES (Score:3, Funny)
THAT"S WHAT I NEED! Instead of using color and shapes to help me distinguish various functions and areas on the screen, just make it all white on white with white trim. ITS SO SIMPLE A CHILD COULD DO IT!
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Virtual +1 funny, I hope a well-known stand-up comedian uses that in his show, maybe Google, Microsoft and Apple will suddenly wake up and go back to sane user interfaces.
Not everyone is happy. (Score:5, Funny)
Hotblack Desiato’s and his band Disaster Area would prefer an all black on black interface ...
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glad i'm not the only one who thought about that reference
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glad i'm not the only one who thought about that reference
Same! The description of the control system (i.e. user interface) in the ship was marvellous. It wasn't supposed to be a guide though.
It's like, how much more black could it be (Score:2)
with respect to Douglas Adams: (Score:5, Funny)
"It’s the wild color scheme that freaks me out,’ said Zaphod, whose love affair with the app had lasted almost three minutes after the download. 'Every time you try and operate these weird white controls that are labeled in white on a white background, a little white light lights up in white to let you know you’ve done it.’"
WTF Google?! (Score:1)
Apparently you have too many UI designers on hand. Let them go, please and f*up someone else's design. It used to be UI designers had to be actually *good* at their job. Nowadays they are just everywhere. At my company they are now beefing up every stupid email and powerpoint presentation for no apparent value. Sure all is looking a bit nicer, a bit more polished.
In reality however *nobody was asking for it*.
Cringe (Score:3)
I always cringe at Google redesigns.. I thought Gmail was just fine when it came out. Then they started messing with the UI. It wasn't an improvement.. now things are harder to see, they don't stand out as much. Now they're at it again. I worry.
Same goes for Chrome. They seem to come out with something really good in the beginning but then they want to "improve" it and they just mess it up.
I can't be the only one :( (Score:5, Insightful)
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Back in the 80s when GUIs were new we used to have grey backgrounds. That provided enough, but not too much contrast with black text, and allowed white text for highlights, and most colours worked fine too. With black or white backgrounds there are always some colours that don't work (e.g. black/blue, white/yellow).
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I'm probably in a minority here, but I disagree with this. For some reason white text on a black background makes my eyes strain after a while. I prefer dark text on light.
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I'm probably in a minority here, but I disagree with this. For some reason white text on a black background makes my eyes strain after a while. I prefer dark text on light.
You're actually in the non-vocal majority.
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That's because there's too much contrast between the two. Try darker text on a black background. After you found the proper contrast, try different colours. Dark green on black is quite easy on the eyes.
Yay! All white! Zero contrast is what we need! (Score:2)
Because why the hell should we be able to have clear and concise visual navigation aids?
Pfft! What is this? 2018?
THAT'S RACIST!!!! (Score:2)
YOU CAN'T SPELL!!! (Score:2)
*insert proper way of writing sarcasm here*
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Damn you, The123king! I don't come here to learn stuff!
Crunched it, now stretched it (Score:3)
Nothing to show what are clickable and what are not. There is no shortage of screen real estate, still the site comes with minimal info on huge fonts.
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Also, you need to rotate your desktop display 90 degrees to view the page in portrait mode.
SMTP (Score:1)
"All-White Redesign"? (Score:2)
No changes here! (Score:2)
"basic HTML" mode FTW.
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Just shut up and go buy yourself a new pair of sneakers.
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This would make a good mockumentary.