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Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

danielmiessler.com

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Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#121

Post by standardUser »

anonygler wrote: post #17

As a former Googler, Google has been utterly hostile to self critcism on this front. Responses to any criticism of Google's UI falls in the following buckets: - Well I think it looks great. - Stay in your lane, how dare you criticize our designers. This makes them feel unsafe at work. (Whatever the fuck that means) - We did a user study and they liked it, so it must be good. Fundamentally, Googlers are afraid to make…

What I've always found odd is the lack of options across Google applications. It's one thing to play it safe, but another to deny basic modifications that are usually standard. Things as simple as changing color options are so often absent.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#122

Post by coldtea »

websterisk wrote: post #57
ogjunkyard wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Inbox was so good. I was honestly shocked that they got rid of what felt like true innovation in the email space (at the time).

And any hands for Google Reader? I don't think any other tool has had that level of impact on my content consumption, prior or since. It was everything it needed to be and not anything more. RIP.

Well, compared to native RSS readers Google Reader was crap.

Why do people rememeber it fondly? Was it the fact that it was web based, or was it the only/first RSS reader people have used?

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#123

Post by astrange »

mekster wrote: post #83
mattkevan wrote: post #5

Besides the terrible UX I’d say Google is getting left behind due to the virtually zero improvement in its apps over the last decade. Started using Google Drive for work in around 2011 and stopped last year when I moved to a Microsoft-based company. In that time it didn’t seem like there were any major improvements in functionality to the core Drive, Docs and Sheets (and poor, forgotten Draw) apps. In fact most chang…

I agree there are many poor UI under Google's products, the map is still uncontested and still amazingly good including Google Earth.

The Earth Mac app feels like it hasn’t been updated in 15 years though.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#124

Post by robertlagrant »

metalliqaz wrote: post #78

The new icons for their apps on Android are terribad. They are all the same colors. Now the photos app icon looks the same as the maps app icon, which causes me to confuse the two when I only give a quick glance. Gmail used to be red, now I have trouble finding it among all their other crap. WTF Google???

I group apps by functional area, so this actually hasn't affected me. But I can imagine if you group apps by brand for some reason then it'd be rather difficult to tell them apart!

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#125

Post by robertlagrant »

mikelanza wrote: post #102

The most fundamental problem at Google, of which bad UX/UI is one symptom, is that product management has no real power there. Engineering has all the power there, and basically does whatever it likes. It takes product management research as "input" for its decisions, but does not share power with product management. Strong, competent product management balances user needs, marketplace conditions (competing and compl…

So did Engineering change all the icons to look almost identical?

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#126

Post by Razengan »

YouTube is one of the biggest victims ever of UI/UX that has been crippled on purpose.

• Picture-on-Picture has been artificially blocked on iOS for years.

• Autoplay next video but no auto-repeat, what the fuck?

• Weirdass TikTok-wannabe format for short videos that you can't save in your playlists along with other limitations.

• Comments have been broken and unmoderated since forever.

• Hard to access all your playlists and edit them.

• Can't scroll through the comments while viewing the video on desktop, but you can on mobile.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#127

Post by ddoolin »

websterisk wrote: post #57
ogjunkyard wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Inbox was so good. I was honestly shocked that they got rid of what felt like true innovation in the email space (at the time).

And any hands for Google Reader? I don't think any other tool has had that level of impact on my content consumption, prior or since. It was everything it needed to be and not anything more. RIP.

I stopped reading all the feeds I had after they killed Reader. I couldn't get back into it after having used it for years.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#128

Post by astrange »

barkingcat wrote: post #23
mdwelsh wrote: post #14

I used to work at Google, as an engineering director on the Chrome Mobile team. While I agree that the UX of many Google products needs fixing, it's not just a simple matter of "Google, you are made out of money. Fix your fucking interfaces." The article misses a really important point that you can't just revamp the UX for a product used by billions of users without some pretty serious blowback. Startups like Notion…

I think while yes, UI changes does take a lot of care, I think it is a matter of "Google, you are made out of money. Fix your fucking interfaces." If one of the richest companies on the planet can't pay to hire good designers, and just pay to buyout a whole ecosystem (ie what they did with AMP), then no one can. Rather, I think your points aside, it's a matter of executive direction and attention. Google executives d…

Do they even know it’s bad? Google has approximately no way to report issues in anything.

I assume they have telemetry for some things. Whenever I sign into Hangouts I have to report hundreds of porn spam chats I’ve been added to - they should be seeing that. Aren’t doing anything about it though.

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#129

Post by [deleted] »

KirinDave wrote: post #75
ewmiller wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This makes them feel unsafe at work. I wonder how long my employment would last if I just stopped doing a good job and then said that as a response to any effort by my manager or teammates to criticize my output.

It's amazing to me that something as innocuous as, "Professional conduct includes at least an attempt at constructive criticism as opposed to venting" is now a heretical concept on this website.

[deleted]

Re: Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX

#130

Post by zeku »

mdwelsh wrote: post #14

I used to work at Google, as an engineering director on the Chrome Mobile team. While I agree that the UX of many Google products needs fixing, it's not just a simple matter of "Google, you are made out of money. Fix your fucking interfaces." The article misses a really important point that you can't just revamp the UX for a product used by billions of users without some pretty serious blowback. Startups like Notion…

I use chrome on android and it seems to work well for me. I don't understand what the issue is with that particular product. In fact I'm struggling to think of a google product I use that feels dated.
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