31–40 of 54 posts
Provide a direct link your premier / 'home' product via your logo (reinforcing the idea that you're a one-product company), or encourage users to consider the full range of products by making them choose the one they're most interested in?
It seems sensible to me; there's nothing 'batshit crazy' about it.
e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#...
Link to left: http://www.google.com/search?q=afghanistan&hl=en&biw...
Link at top: http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn
When I click the logo, it takes me back to the Google Homepage. I've refreshed my cache a number of times. Perhaps they've reverted back? My mouse cursor does not change from default when I hover over it, though.
I just logged in and in GMail, clicking on the Google Icon didn't do anything. Worked the same on a few other pages I tried.
Perhaps they haven't rolled out the changes to all pages yet, but seems inconsistent to only disable it on certain interior pages...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is not a change for the better, what possible advantage does it offer?
With the "Kennedy" UI (codename for the recent cross-product redesign), many Google properties had their own logo replaced by a plain Google one. Now, to differentiate between products such as Google Voice, a red-colored product name is displayed right below the Google logo. Also, when you do a Google search, the product name is now always "Search", even when you started a search in Google News / Images / Videos / Sh…
My point is, all this requires me to think. But before I could just swing my mouse into the top left corner, click "Gmail" and always end up at my inbox, no matter where I was in the application. This consistency has gone.
I should have phrased my question: "What possible advantage does this offer, to the user?"
I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…
I think the logo clicking decision isn't crazy. My interpretation is that Google is "un-training" users from using this valuable piece of screen real estate for a useless no-op function, in anticipation of putting a more useful function in its place. Does anyone remember a few weeks back, when Google tested a "new way to browse Google's services"? They turned the logo into a button, producing a drop-down menu of serv…
It's not an useless no-op function. By going to default/main page of the service it reverts you to a known state, simplifying navigation and enhancing user confidence. I personally rely on this behaviour of main logos and get terribly annoyed if someone breaks my expectation (which, rarely, happens).
I think the bigger problem with Google's UI is that the top links to Google's top-level categories do not keep your search terms. Only the left links do... In other words if I search the web for "Afghanistan" and then realize I actually want news article search results, if I click "News" at the top I have to re-type "Afghanistan". This is terrible. e.g. from http://www.google.com/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&qe=YWZnaGFuaQ&#... Lin…
But it does work for images, maps and youtube.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
With the "Kennedy" UI (codename for the recent cross-product redesign), many Google properties had their own logo replaced by a plain Google one. Now, to differentiate between products such as Google Voice, a red-colored product name is displayed right below the Google logo. Also, when you do a Google search, the product name is now always "Search", even when you started a search in Google News / Images / Videos / Sh…
Just looking at Gmail now, there actually isn't a Gmail logo anymore. There is a Google logo that I can't click on and there's a Gmail link underneath it, but clicking the Gmail link opens a popup menu. I have to then click "Gmail" on the popup menu to get to my Inbox. (Or I could just click "Inbox" of course, but that sometimes gets hidden when i have a lot of labels open, and it's a smaller, fiddly link). I'd bet m…
For most other products, Google prefers to frustrate some users (cf. https://plus.google.com/117598418867899518106/posts/Zr4vhv6p...) by disabling all logos' links while users get familiar with clicking the products' titles to go to the products' home. But once users will be used to this and all those products will be fully integrated with Google Search (cf. my previous comment), then they'll add a link to the all those Google logos in products' header because they won't be lost in a service (Google Search) that is independent to the product they come from (Gmail / Docs / Reader...). If they succeed, I think all users will benefit from this new navigation concept.
I don't like the current situation (unusable product logo) but it's certainly temporary: they've reverted to the dark navigation bar a few days after the release of the big toolbelt navigation menu, so they're probably still looking for a good solution.
In the meantime, it's a difficult POLA dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment): 50% of Gmail users might expect to be sent to Google's homepage by clicking the Google logo in Gmail, while the other users might expect to refresh Gmail or go back the inbox by clicking the only logo in Gmail's header. Where should Gmail's Google logo point to?
Complaining about broken website conventions while simultaneously breaking them yourself is either ironic or hypocritical, depending on your mood. The author's webpage has a "x Kudos" vibrating image on the right and side, and if you hover over the image then the page sends a "like" HTTP message to the server. So now hovering my mouse over an element just had me like the author's page. That is way worse than a link w…