How to cope with the Gmail redesign • Hacker News Board

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#111

Post by EvilTerran » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:21 AM UTC

twelvechairs wrote: post #99

andrewfelix wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure what you're stating here. Businesses shouldn't look at past performances in order to make judgements about future performance? And those who ignore it will have an edge?

No. Thats not at all what I said.

Then what did you say?

andrewfelix was prompting you to elaborate. Just replying "that's not what I said" is completely unproductive - this is meant to be a conversation, not a game of twenty questions. We shouldn't have to guess at your meaning.

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#112

Post by Hurdy » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:32 AM UTC

esc wrote: post #103

abentspoon wrote: post #66

You can actually still use the old interface for a little while longer, even if you've been forced over to the redesign. http://qwerjk.com/revert-gmail

Thanks for this. Having forced to use the new design for a few days, the old one feels and looks so much better. My biggest annoyance in the new one apart from the horrible colors was how the buttons change position or disappear depending on the context. Much less intuitive than the old design. Its a shame that Google decided to force the new design, I would just leave the old one as optional as it was during the pas…

The old design will completely go away in the next few days. From a development perspective it's just not feasible to make everything work for two different designs (with many many themes). It's better to spend the time on cool new features.

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#113

Post by statictype » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:34 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #88

This article made me finally bite the bullet and convert. I've been using the new design for the last several hours. I happen to have a window open with the old design, so I know it's not merely my imagination that the new one is worse. Not enormously so, but definitely worse. Read mails are more legible in the old version, because there is more contrast between black letters and the old light blue background than be…

or worse still, more consistent

So you believe that consistency among UI screens should take a backseat to usefulness? I agree with this but I know there are a lot of people who believe the opposite - that consistency is more important to good design. And this isn't limited to big companies.

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#114

Post by smutticus » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:43 AM UTC

eternalban wrote: post #14

davux wrote: post #9

I ended up leaving Gmail a few months ago (knowing this was coming). The new design works really poorly with browser zoom. I need to view the page zoomed in to 300% or so most of the time (I don't have good vision). Zooming really worked pretty well on all of the past iterations, up until this one. There are a number of panes that stay visible when scrolling, so the content area on the web page becomes really really…

Try http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html

Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#115

Post by tome » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:44 AM UTC

rdl wrote: post #92

I can't imagine using gmail for high-volume email; I've used it at various times due to being lazy about setting up something better, but ugh. mutt is so much better, using maildirs synced with imap (with mbsync or something). Totally customizable, per-folder triggers, and works in a terminal.

Yes, I can't understand why highly computer-literate people use GMail. There must be something very compelling about it because it's so popular, but no one's ever explained to me what it is. If anyone here wants to explain, I'd appreciate it!

I use mutt too, which I find incredibly flexible. The only downside I experience compared to GMail is that searching is not as powerful. Am I missing something?

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#116

Post by darklajid » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:47 AM UTC

nopassrecover wrote: post #86

Karunamon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing I'm aware of Outlook 2010 having from that list is the social networking pane.

Outlook has conversation view as well, and Microsoft Lync (formerly Office Communicator) integrates the rest of the feature set (yes you're vendor-locked, but you are with GMail too). In my opinion GMail executes better on most of these features, but they're not the only ones to offer them.

Not a fan, but Lync even allows XMPP access (if so configured), so all your GTalk buddies can message you from GMail (at least that should work - didn't try).

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#117

Post by kreitje » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 11:58 AM UTC

Hurdy wrote: post #110

kreitje wrote: post #46

Their spam/filtering has gone down hill. It does a great job with the spam. Unfortunately, several people I communicate with a few times a day, half of their stuff goes straight to the trash and I don't see it. If I login to webmail I can see they have both an Inbox and Trash label on them but my phone and mail client to register the new mail and it doesn't show in the Inbox. I just want it to pick one.

Can you rephrase that? How do these messages get the trash label?

I go into the trash label inside Gmail. I click on a message that I didn't want to go straight to my trash. At the top where it shows the Trash label there is also an Inbox one with it.

As soon as I click the "x" on the label, I can see the email being downloaded by the mail client I use. It is of course displaying the Inbox and not Trash.

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#118

Post by kreitje » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 12:01 PM UTC

Hurdy wrote: post #110

kreitje wrote: post #46

Their spam/filtering has gone down hill. It does a great job with the spam. Unfortunately, several people I communicate with a few times a day, half of their stuff goes straight to the trash and I don't see it. If I login to webmail I can see they have both an Inbox and Trash label on them but my phone and mail client to register the new mail and it doesn't show in the Inbox. I just want it to pick one.

Can you rephrase that? How do these messages get the trash label?

Forgot to mention how they get them.

Either someone has my login and is messing with me by somehow adding the Trash and Inbox label or there is a glitch in the system putting both labels on it. My guess is the glitch.

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#119

Post by Hurdy » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 12:21 PM UTC

kreitje wrote: post #118

Hurdy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you rephrase that? How do these messages get the trash label?

Forgot to mention how they get them. Either someone has my login and is messing with me by somehow adding the Trash and Inbox label or there is a glitch in the system putting both labels on it. My guess is the glitch.

There is no glitch that just adds trash labels. Did you check if you have any filters set up that might be responsible?

Re: How to cope with the Gmail redesign

#120

Post by damncabbage » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 12:26 PM UTC

statictype wrote: post #113

pg wrote: post #88

This article made me finally bite the bullet and convert. I've been using the new design for the last several hours. I happen to have a window open with the old design, so I know it's not merely my imagination that the new one is worse. Not enormously so, but definitely worse. Read mails are more legible in the old version, because there is more contrast between black letters and the old light blue background than be…

or worse still, more consistent So you believe that consistency among UI screens should take a backseat to usefulness? I agree with this but I know there are a lot of people who believe the opposite - that consistency is more important to good design. And this isn't limited to big companies.

Consistency is only a means to an end. That end can be a net positive, but I think pg is alluding to consistency for the sake of Google's convenience, rather than the convenience of its users.