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Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

danielmiessler.com

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Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#41

Post by marcosdumay »

mdwelsh wrote: post #14

I used to work at Google, as an engineering director on the Chrome Mobile team. While I agree that the UX of many Google products needs fixing, it's not just a simple matter of "Google, you are made out of money. Fix your fucking interfaces." The article misses a really important point that you can't just revamp the UX for a product used by billions of users without some pretty serious blowback. Startups like Notion…

> you can't just revamp the UX for a product used by billions of users without some pretty serious blowback

Somehow, that doesn't stop companies from breaking they UX, only from fixing it.

Most of the Google software started with good usability (gmail, drive, search, maps). It got horrendous by changing.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#42

Post by mgkimsal »

mdwelsh wrote: post #14

I used to work at Google, as an engineering director on the Chrome Mobile team. While I agree that the UX of many Google products needs fixing, it's not just a simple matter of "Google, you are made out of money. Fix your fucking interfaces." The article misses a really important point that you can't just revamp the UX for a product used by billions of users without some pretty serious blowback. Startups like Notion…

> ... without making some really major changes that are highly disruptive. Now, you could just say that Google should bite the bullet and hit reboot on some of its bad UX decisions from years ago.

They don't seem to have much of a problem EOL-ing products. THAT is often far more disruptive to large swathes of people. Perhaps not billions, but I would hazard to say millions of people have been affected by various product shutdowns, and there's never any rebound from that. Making UI changes can be rolled out to groups of folks with adjustments made on feedback, then further rolled out, or ... scrapped.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#43

Post by richardfey »

absolutelyrad wrote: post #16

I'd add that material UI is one of the worst things to come out of Google, and their implementation in GCP, Gmail etc. I absolutely hate it, and it looks cheap. Even Windows 10 interface looks better. Even though Material UI is functional, there is something off about it. Something is weird about it, and I can't tell what. Maybe there's a word for it. It feels/looks cheap, like designed for the lowest common denomina…

Someone explained it some years ago. It was about the lack of consistency in shadows and that conveying depth on a virtual sheet of paper does not feel natural

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#44

Post by camjohnson26 »

Lutzb wrote: post #20
mattkevan wrote: post #5

Besides the terrible UX I’d say Google is getting left behind due to the virtually zero improvement in its apps over the last decade. Started using Google Drive for work in around 2011 and stopped last year when I moved to a Microsoft-based company. In that time it didn’t seem like there were any major improvements in functionality to the core Drive, Docs and Sheets (and poor, forgotten Draw) apps. In fact most chang…

When Google Mail was invite only, it was a revelation of what a web mail client could be. Fast, forward thinking in the way mails were presented. Then it became a monstrosity that I can no longer recommend to anyone. Suddenly Google Inbox came along. Fast, simple, focused packed with useful new features like mail grouping and content extraction. And it was killed off after roughly two years without any of the feature…

Google inbox was the last Google product I used and easily the best. Completely got rid of my inbox clutter and gave the ability to snooze emails.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#45

Post by ihateg00gle »

Google, stop showing me those annoying privacy boxes each time I open search or youtube in private mode. And don't tell me, you did that because of regulations, because you can easily provide a plugin (or browser option) to disable them all.

On YouTube I have to close two dialogs, before I can start watching videos. Very annoying.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#46

Post by richardfey »

bkandel wrote: post #6

I usually think these "Google is the worst" posts are over the top, but I genuinely find Gmail's mobile interface bewildering. There are two three-dot/ellipsis icons when you read an email and after using mobile Gmail for years I have no idea which actions are in which. "Move to Inbox": upper icon. "Add star": lower icon. "Mark important": upper icon. "Mark unread": lower icon. I'm sure there's some explanation or at…

There's three if you count Chrome's one

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#47

Post by fakedang »

ceejayoz wrote: post #31
anonygler wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because the last decade of improvements at GSuite aren't for you. They're to satisfy made up requirements by Government and Enterprise IT departments, with the rest of the energy sucked out by European Regulations. Data location and retention policies, privacy, logging, data export, legal, etc etc.

The GDPR didn't require Gmail to become slow, or Google to provide multiple confusingly competing video call products.

Ahh the good old days of when I was recommended Allo, Duo and Hangouts by the Playstore.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#48

Post by titanomachy »

inglor_cz wrote: post #40
anonygler wrote: post #17

As a former Googler, Google has been utterly hostile to self critcism on this front. Responses to any criticism of Google's UI falls in the following buckets: - Well I think it looks great. - Stay in your lane, how dare you criticize our designers. This makes them feel unsafe at work. (Whatever the fuck that means) - We did a user study and they liked it, so it must be good. Fundamentally, Googlers are afraid to make…

"This makes them feel unsafe at work." This is modern office equivalent of nuking the opponent in war.

Or like comparing a political opponent to Hitler?

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#49

Post by camjohnson26 »

absolutelyrad wrote: post #16

I'd add that material UI is one of the worst things to come out of Google, and their implementation in GCP, Gmail etc. I absolutely hate it, and it looks cheap. Even Windows 10 interface looks better. Even though Material UI is functional, there is something off about it. Something is weird about it, and I can't tell what. Maybe there's a word for it. It feels/looks cheap, like designed for the lowest common denomina…

It makes every app feel like a toy.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#50

Post by ouid »

mattkevan wrote: post #5

Besides the terrible UX I’d say Google is getting left behind due to the virtually zero improvement in its apps over the last decade. Started using Google Drive for work in around 2011 and stopped last year when I moved to a Microsoft-based company. In that time it didn’t seem like there were any major improvements in functionality to the core Drive, Docs and Sheets (and poor, forgotten Draw) apps. In fact most chang…

I would amend this to say that chat services have all been bad except for the first one, which was great.
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