Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
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Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#2I got used to the new gmail thread display, although I agree that the old way was more suggestive, but the missing + in Chrome still bugs me.
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#3The new Gmail is worse than the last one. I have dropped a few feedback lines. A few examples:
- The decoupling of reply box and the email "cards". - The removal of colors in the names, which was very useful to guide yourself through the different actors in a email conversation.
Just to new a few. The new Gmail pretends to be better, but it just can't cut it off.
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#4Search results not carrying over to Google News when you click the black header tab is something that drove me crazy for a good week until I trained myself to use the left-side menu for switching between result types.
It doesn't make sense, particularly when "News" is the ONLY tab which doesn't carry the search terms over. Try it with Images, YouTube and Maps; wonderful. I wouldn't necessarily expect convention to follow with Gmail or Documents, sure, but NEWS? Come on!
The missing + on Chrome made me think I had a screwy update.
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#5I'm most confused about Google's decision to remove the links from the logos. This is a convention engrained in the interwebs and I can't come up with a single reason why they would change it. Sure maybe inexperienced users wouldn't know the functionality exists, but when has that ever been a reason to remove a feature?
I think there was a HN discussion about this recently, but I missed it. Anybody know why they made this decision?
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#6> First up is the 'new tab' chicklet in the Chrome tab bar. Somewhere around Chrome 16 the '+' disappeared from it, leaving a little ghost of a button that, to my mind, wouldn't be recognized for what it was by a user who hadn't already formed their mental model on earlier versions of Chrome.
I'd noticed this and it was very irritating! I assumed it was a bug and for whatever reason the image was missing, not that they had intentionally removed it. That's nonsensical to me, without the + being there it indicates... nothing. His point is exactly right.
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#7I'm most confused about Google's decision to remove the links from the logos. This is a convention engrained in the interwebs and I can't come up with a single reason why they would change it. Sure maybe inexperienced users wouldn't know the functionality exists, but when has that ever been a reason to remove a feature? I think there was a HN discussion about this recently, but I missed it. Anybody know why they made…
This is my own personal assumption, but I think it is to push focus towards the navigation bar and encourage users to look around. If you instinctively click the logo and nothing happens you start looking around and will discover the other things listed (such as the google+ button).
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#8Search results not carrying over to Google News when you click the black header tab is something that drove me crazy for a good week until I trained myself to use the left-side menu for switching between result types. It doesn't make sense, particularly when "News" is the ONLY tab which doesn't carry the search terms over. Try it with Images, YouTube and Maps; wonderful. I wouldn't necessarily expect convention to fo…
> The missing + on Chrome made me think I had a screwy update.
I thought the same. Now that I know it was intentional, it actually kind of bothers me. Seems like something is missing. Fortunately, shortcuts mean I almost never have to look up there :)
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#9I'm most confused about Google's decision to remove the links from the logos. This is a convention engrained in the interwebs and I can't come up with a single reason why they would change it. Sure maybe inexperienced users wouldn't know the functionality exists, but when has that ever been a reason to remove a feature? I think there was a HN discussion about this recently, but I missed it. Anybody know why they made…
Purely speculation, but it seems like the only reason they'd do this is to free up the space for a future use case? While it will probably annoy/stump a few people for a second or two, ultimately people will just learn not to click on the logo.
At that point, the Google logo could become... err... well they tried to turn it into an all-google-properties dropdown previously, so who knows, maybe they'll try again later?
Re: Kevin Fox on recent Google UX changes: from strange-to-me to just-plain-crazy
#10The + would have been removed from the Chrome UI because it reduces Google's claim to the "+" mark in their Google+ branding. Google wants people to think "Google+" when they see a button with a + on it (not "create new tab").