Has Google Finally Found Its Mobile Design Chops?

It was eventually bound to happen. Google have essentially taken the simplistic approach to their applications instead of favouring Apple's love for skeuomorphism combined with their own pieces of design flare. Less is more in the world of true design, I think Google are gearing themselves up for a design fight of sorts with Apple here and I'd say Google is already marginally ahead. For a company associated with innovative design, I feel as though Apple have truly dropped the ball the last couple of years and it's starting to show as others including Microsoft catch up quite rapidly.

I agree - I find the clean crisp look of the new iOS GMail App to be very pleasing. On the small iPhone screen, it improves readability and functionality. Ditto for the new Maps App. Compared to where Google iOS apps were a year or two ago, they have really moved ahead. Contrast this to the abominable Apple Podcasts App! I'm a big Apple fan, but some of the latest software releases are beginning to really make me wonder what's going on in the heads of the Apple developers.

The way Google apps behave now is way different than they were when ICS came out initially, especially things like swiping to show menu on the side. While Holo has been there for about a year, the details were never filled in by Google with a flagship first party app. Holo provided the polish, the usability in Google apps come from the way they attach functionality to gesture.

So I guess it is news-worthy for other people unfamiliar with how Google iterated their apps on Android to know that finally Google has nailed down pretty much all what it wanted to achieve.

I was disappointed with ICS, I was expected an overhaul but what we got was polishing of the existing metaphors. Basically they chose 1 way to design things and stuck with it, whereas in the pre-ICS days the designs were all over the place.

However they didn't really rethink any major UI aspect. The multitasking got the biggest overhaul, but that was just a superficial change. The UI is still a carousel of apps/widgets (most widgets being useless). Nothing like Windows Phone's pinning. Nothing like the N9's swipe. Still the same ole, just with a fresh coat of paint.