Someone at Google needs to get a Goddamn clue and look at a UI design manual. What the hell are they thinking? Has Larry let the MBAs get out of control? There's clearly something wrong, as no sensible, actual user of these products surely could believe that this mess is an improvement? This is on a par with the del.icio.us mess.
Here's one of the reasons: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3190205 "If I remember correctly, Google engineers are given the choice of one 30" monitor or a two 24" monitors," That explains all. At the time "normal people" converge to notebooks and laptops with even less height, they "optimize" UI for their immense screens. The managers who approve also test it on their 30 inch screens. And they certainly don't und…
Sticking with one resolution when testing is such a noob mistake I'd doubt google could make it. You don't need a different screen to test different layouts, Firefox webdeveloper extension lets you define viewport sizes for testing easily.
Someone at Google needs to get a Goddamn clue and look at a UI design manual. What the hell are they thinking? Has Larry let the MBAs get out of control? There's clearly something wrong, as no sensible, actual user of these products surely could believe that this mess is an improvement? This is on a par with the del.icio.us mess.
It may not be MBAs, but Ex-Yahoo! guys http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3143054
:) Yeah, I'll take a look at your link, but the new styles are surely reminiscent of the awful YUI, which much as I love Crockford, I'd have to write off as crap, due to its convoluted programming model and wretched bad appearance and inefficiency. (Example: compare the stock charts in Yahoo with Google's - slow and very flickery)
Here's a concrete example in the form of a comparison between old Gmail and new GMail.
Me too, I am definitely in the market for a new RSS reader now.
What are you looking for in a reader? I develop one called Lilina, which aims to be pluggable and themeable, so I'd love to know what sort of things I should be focusing on. (If you'd like to check it out, http://getlilina.org/ )
Does it handle smartphone/tablets correctly ? (my current online RSS reader is really not good at that)
It really is astonishing how much bile and vitriol can be caused by a UI change. I guess it's a subset of the general dislike of change most people have. And it's also amazing how absolutely certain some people are that their own view is the right one. I'm not a fan of the new UI yet, but I suspect in a few weeks I will have forgotten what the old one was like.
Perhaps part of it is that it is a reminder of lack of control of cloud based software? With most traditional software, if I dislike the new version I can continue using the old. With cloud based software, including just about all web based programs, when there is a new version my choices are to use the new version or switch to something else entirely (and if the product has any form of effective lock in, the second may not really be an option).
People like the feeling of being in control, and a change they did not expect and cannot undo undermines that feeling.
I'm a long time, heavy user of Reader, but as a disclaimer: my usage consists of the letters j, k, m, and v, so I'll admit that I don't care at all about the lost social features, and my short cuts and usage patterns remain unchanged. This article seems no different than any other of the reader articles submitted in the last few days (especially the one by the other former googler that worked on reader). If his offer…
I'm a fellow j,k,m,v,f user, and my biggest complaint about the redesign is that it seems so much slower than before. Pressing j used to go to the next item almost immediately, now it's "press j... wait for it... next item... repeat." Makes rapidly going through unread items really irritating. Seems to be the same with the mousewheel too.
Maybe it's a browser/OS problem or something (Ubuntu 11.10, Chromium 15). I haven't heard anyone else mentioning this, but I can't be the only one...
I want a share-to-G+ that does not involve a public +1. You can do that. Use "Share" in the upper right of the OneGoogle bar.
This works, but then you have to use the mouse, and when you're done sharing, context isn't returned to what it used to be, so keyboard shorcuts (n, shift+n, j, k, l, etc...) don't work until you click on a story to focus. Also, I can't hit l to like (maybe p to plus now?) or shift+s to share. You can change my sharing options, you can change the look and feel. But messing with my keyboard shortcuts is tantamount to…
Along the same lines, you can no longer tell instantly if an item is shared (via the bottom of the content).
Before, sharing an item would change the text to "Shared" so that you could both 1.) see that it was shared and 2.) click again to undo the Share. Now, you would have to go to G+ to check.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really understand the huge community backlash to the Reader rework. I spend hours in reader every day, and it wasn't until they added in G+ that it actually became easy to share.The addition made it so I could share within a community I was already involved in rather then a few people in some disconnected Reader community. From my perspective they actually removed the useless…
Normally I'm the person who makes this type of comment. I'm not a fan of resistance to change, or contrariness in general - especially the particularly annoying and overly dramatic Internet Blogger brands. However for me the crucial missing feature is being able to view and comment on your friends' shared items within Reader. I'm completely OK with Google requiring me to have a Google+ account, and see the sense in t…
You, you just put my thoughts and frustrations into words, thank you. I'm also usually very open to change and what have you, but I despise the new reader. Exactly because I like to be in reader, and see what my friends posted from reader. I don't want it mixed with the rest of my social life, I don't want it mixed with FB like status updates, I just want to see what people are sharing in Reader. It's like I had my own "community" in reader, a small but special subset of people really in the "know". Yeahyeah, that's a circle, I know, but I went to reader to read what they shared, then I read my own, and shared. The 'dialog' was more circular, if that makes any sense. That, and my Reader slants heavily on the 'images' and artsy side of things, it was almost like a micro tumblr that only friends saw, but unlike tumblr, it's not recycled stuff, we are all pulling from different places, I followed a guy from finance, a dude that loved astronomy, and chick in advertising, a guy in tech, a girl into silly comics, and it was all right there, im my reader. It was perfect.
Dear God in Heaven please let them take him up on it. Now that I'm a few days into the new redesign my workflow has become 1. Read RSS feeds. 2. Research RSS feed readers.
It really is astonishing how much bile and vitriol can be caused by a UI change. I guess it's a subset of the general dislike of change most people have. And it's also amazing how absolutely certain some people are that their own view is the right one. I'm not a fan of the new UI yet, but I suspect in a few weeks I will have forgotten what the old one was like.
The only bit of the change I object to --- since I never used the social features --- is that they've changed the link colour from blue to dark grey.
This is enough to make links mostly invisible, and makes Reader much less useful as a feed reader for me.
In a few weeks I'll either be using a different feed reader, or my eyes will be much better at distinguishing dark grey from black.
Me too, I am definitely in the market for a new RSS reader now.
What are you looking for in a reader? I develop one called Lilina, which aims to be pluggable and themeable, so I'd love to know what sort of things I should be focusing on. (If you'd like to check it out, http://getlilina.org/ )
Can I try it out online without downloading and installing it?