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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

#21

Post by johnnujler »

Tbh, It might just be me, but I am starting to feel that the vanity of Material Design is also starting to fade away. People are moving towards other options. In fact, with so many people in the design space doing great work I think users are starting to realise that the initial craze around the precise/scientific design that Google claimed Material Design to be is not really it. Things can be better than material design, and we are seeing it.

Recently with blueprintjs, notion, fluent design, and whatnot things I think have started to change for better. And then there is always apple doing its thing.

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

#22

Post by anonygler »

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…

That's because the last decade of improvements at GSuite aren't for you. They're to satisfy made up requirements by Government and Enterprise IT departments, with the rest of the energy sucked out by European Regulations. Data location and retention policies, privacy, logging, data export, legal, etc etc.

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

#23

Post by barkingcat »

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 doesn't give a damn about good UI. They have all the money in the world, but won't spend it on proper improvements to UI and product interfaces.

You can argue until your face is blue that the people at Google are great, very talented, but unfortunately ... if the execs don't buy into it all these talented designers/engineers are just twiddling their thumbs and making design mocks that will never see the light of day.

Or as the saying goes: have their product cancelled once they make it a good product.

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

#24

Post by richardfey »

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…

You have just described ossification and risk-averse decision processes.

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

#25

Post by denimnerd42 »

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…

This is a very good point that once your software has a UI/UX and good adoption it's very painful to change it. Personally I despise when UI/UX changes to my daily software as my muscle memory is so honed in on how to do the work quickly. Frankly I don't care if it's optimal or not because it's completely suboptimal once the change is made and I have to spend the 2 weeks relearning it.

I'm not sure what the solution is to this problem. Maybe some day we can treat any UI with a long availability promise and continuously version it. Then the user can stick with their current version as long as it makes sense to them and if they want to upgrade they can do so voluntarily.

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

#26

Post by ogjunkyard »

Lutzb wrote: post #20
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…

When Google Mail was invite only, it was a revelation of what a web mail client could be. Fast, forward thinking in the way mails were presented. Then it became a monstrosity that I can no longer recommend to anyone. Suddenly Google Inbox came along. Fast, simple, focused packed with useful new features like mail grouping and content extraction. And it was killed off after roughly two years without any of the feature…

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).

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

#27

Post by inetknght »

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…

Where I used Google Drive in the past I now use NextCloud in the future.

Where Google Drive promised in the past "unlimited" storage, I can now provide for myself for cheaper and better.

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

#28

Post by Closi »

anonygler wrote: post #22
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…

That's because the last decade of improvements at GSuite aren't for you. They're to satisfy made up requirements by Government and Enterprise IT departments, with the rest of the energy sucked out by European Regulations. Data location and retention policies, privacy, logging, data export, legal, etc etc.

Meanwhile Microsoft had managed to include all those requirements and actually push on capability.

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

#29

Post by pcj-github »

danso wrote: post #4

This is one of the most content-vacant articles I've seen on HN lately. - "Google Is Getting Left Behind Due to Horrible UI/UX" : provides exactly zero statistics relating to declining Google usage. - "What happened to Google Docs? Why does it not look and behave more like Notion, or Quip, or any of the other alternatives that made progress in the last 5-10 years?" : provides zero screenshots or even textual descript…

Yes I'm getting pretty bored of these kinds of posts that offer no real ideas (this was just a rant) in order to drive traffic to their paid newsletter.
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