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Gmail, We Need to Talk

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Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#61

Post by XJOKOLAT »

wlesieutre wrote: post #38
rconti wrote: post #23

GMail, we need to talk. We need to talk about how substring searches do not work, 11 years after your launch. We need to talk about how you've slowly engineered out everything that was good and unique about GMail. We need to talk about how you "flattened" the style, removed colors from threaded messages, and just decided to use shades of grey everywhere. We need to talk about how difficult it is to tell one message f…

You can still use the "Basic HTML" layout for GMail. It's actually pretty great. It doesn't look "modern", but if you ask me it's more usable. https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h

Ahh, lovely. What I really like is the strip along the top. I want to use Drive. I click on ... wait for it ... "Drive". Genius ... (not being sarcastic either)

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#62

Post by zaphar »

Allowing style to be included in a web based email client is just asking for trouble. It's not just hard. It's close to impossible thanks to CSS global nature. You would have to literally parse out the css and rewrite it as well as all the html content to automatically uniquely namespace it so it doesn't collide with the rest of your page. And meanwhile you've just created a new attack vector for your email service with security implications you may not want to take on.

All of that just so that you can pretend an inherently text medium is actually a way to deliver web pages directly to users. This is a lot of work for questionable benefit to GMail's actual users as opposed to Email Marketers.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#63

Post by icebraining »

potatolicious wrote: post #42
icebraining wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? If you left-click in a place, a small card appears with an arrow that you can click to get directions. If you right-click, you can get directions from or to the place. And if you search, you also get a very visible round button with an arrow and the label "Directions". How is it hard? EDIT: Sorry if this came out as aggressive. I'm just dumbfounded, that's all.

My beef with GMaps is its performance. The UI is for the most part fine (though there some awful blunders that were later fixed). Loading GMaps takes forever now and brings my entire browser to a freezing stop (Chrome OSX) until it's done doing whatever it's doing. This is a modern desktop (i7, 16GB RAM, discrete graphics). Even after it's done "loading" if you try to interact with the map right away it does so at a…

I completely agree regarding the performance issues; it's often painful to use on my Nexus 7.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#64

Post by mvdwoord »

CM30 wrote: post #16

Oh god, HTML email. Gmail and Outlook literally make coding these things an absolute hell due to their dreadful lack of supports for any form of standard, and the author is damn well spot on about it. Indeed, the only good thing I can say about Gmail is that they didn't try to use the Microsoft Word engine to render HTML like Outlook did. The way HTML email is set up and the table filled soup like code that's needed…

Gmail and Outlook? I had to create some HTML email reports to be read in Lotus Notes. It made me extremely sad as Notes invariably does.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#65

Post by Shog9 »

thieving_magpie wrote: post #29

techcrunch, we need to talk about your article titles. Addressing the content of the article: - "Gmail Makes Developers Shun Email", I can't think of any developer I know that shuns email, and they all pretty much use gmail. - "How Gmail Breaks Email", to be frank... not even in the slightest. Sure, it sounds pretty annoying having to jump through all those hoops for a fancypants email. - "Google should take the lead…

It's an opinion piece from a guy who... apparently... wants to put image carousels into emails and is upset that GMail doesn't let him, and yet dares to intrude upon his beautiful iOS.

Hopefully no one exposes him to the ocean of old Outlook clients with crufty Word-based HTML renderers out there; he might die of a heart attack. Mentioning Pine/Alpine would be cruel as well.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#66

Post by soneca »

PhilWright wrote: post #22
soneca wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sole responsible for acquisition on a startup and I solely (for now) use direct cold email (it is B2B, email sent to public adresses, so it is not spam). I only use plain text emails. I don't even use email tracking so that hidden pixel doesn't trigger any annoying warning on the email client that ruins the experience.

Sending unsolicited email to public addresses in order to sell something is spam. Calling it 'cold email' to make it sound like a legitimate process does not change the fact you are spamming.

I don't actually sell, as these business don't pay us anything. Rather they list they business on our website to their (and ours) value. Is it still spam? (honest question)

Edit: They are a business and have a "contact us" email on their website. Should I really not email them just because im not a customer, but a possible partner?

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#67

Post by gdulli »

icebraining wrote: post #32
gdulli wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps has really become a chore to use, too. I remember getting directions used to be easy once and now it's like interacting with enterprise software.

What? If you left-click in a place, a small card appears with an arrow that you can click to get directions. If you right-click, you can get directions from or to the place. And if you search, you also get a very visible round button with an arrow and the label "Directions". How is it hard? EDIT: Sorry if this came out as aggressive. I'm just dumbfounded, that's all.

I'm not a UX expert and don't have the vocabulary to describe what's wrong with it. What I know is that I used to enjoy using it. Not just for directions, but I'd use it for fun to explore new areas. And now I dislike and avoid using it altogether. Similar to Gmail. It's just feels like a mess of UI elements that show and hide and move dynamically, don't have fixed spots on the page, don't work consistently, etc. Like it was excessively focus-grouped or committee-designed.

I know how to get directions in the new interface. I just don't like doing it. Is it more clicks? More elements taking up space I don't care about? Hijacking the native right-click menu? Aggressive resizing/panning when I didn't ask for it, to accommodate what it thinks the new context should be? I don't really know.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#68

Post by CamperBob2 »

chris_va wrote: post #47
gdulli wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps has really become a chore to use, too. I remember getting directions used to be easy once and now it's like interacting with enterprise software.

https://www.google.com/maps/lite

Hmm. They removed the "Maps Lite" feature awhile back (after threatening to for over a year, as is Google's wont.) Glad to see it's back.

Re: Gmail, We Need to Talk

#70

Post by andyana »

icebraining wrote: post #45
andyana wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same complaint. I can't explain how it has changed, but it used to be easy. Now it is difficult and error prone. I guess I just never paid attention to it when it was easy.

But why is it difficult and error prone now? I frankly cannot see it. What steps do you take, and where do you stumble?

I can't run through it right now, but I guess there are simply too many steps to go from address to navigation. It used to be, as best I recall, input address -> click navigate. The error part comes in from making me visually choose from a list of addresses after I have already put in a specific address (search is not needed). The difficult part comes in to play when I am trying to get somewhere and the app is making me navigate through several interactions.
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