The new Gmail

What do you think of the new Gmail?

  • I use it and love it.

    Votes: 11 18.3%

  • I use it and don't mind it.

    Votes: 26 43.3%

  • I hate it with a feeling of unbridled rage.

    Votes: 14 23.3%

  • I don't use gmail.

    Votes: 9 15.0%
  • Total voters
    60
K

Kaos_Drem

Gawd
Joined
Oct 16, 2004
Messages
970
I'm just trying to get a feel for what people think about it.

I personally hate it and would pay money to get my old gmail back.
 
I have no problem with it, though I've heard similar comments about it (general "I hate it" statements). What, specifically, do you not like?
 
Where is the option for "What the fuck does this have to do with Operating Systems?"
 
I didn't write this, but this accurately describes nearly all the problems with the new version.


1. Why do action buttons have to disappear when not in use? No space is 'saved'. I'd prefer non-flickering buttons.

2. Why can't buttons have labels? Or the option for labels? I don't want to waste time associating some odd exclamation mark with Spam, I don't want to think about the interface at all. I simply want to mark something as spam.

3. Why is the 'Reply All' button hidden? What once took 1 click takes two.

4. In general, why is so much information hidden in dropdowns? I have screen real estate! I would like to use it.

5. Why can't the color coding be returned to the way it was? You could at a glance see who wrote what. This is no longer the case. I have to look away at the empty icon.

6. Most contact icons are empty and a complete waste of pixels in the conversation view. A A single border of color does not offer the clarity and obviousness that the previous color-coding did.

7. Why can't my GChat and Calendar gadget live comfortably on the same page? I want to see them both. I don't want to have to flip between then. At a glance, I want to know my schedule and who is available to talk to. Why is this suddenly not possible? Now both my chat and my calendar have wasted space below them. Yet more clicks.

8. What was wrong with the old scroll bar? Why bring back Frame programming cliches from the 90's? There are reasons those died away.

9. I want an action-bar on the bottom of the screen. It saved mouse movements and helped frame my inbox visually. I keep a clean, mostly empty inbox. In the new look, this equates to a mostly empty screen.

10. What once was customizable in every way has been reduced to hi-definition backgrounds. How is this an improvement? Terminal theme looked like a terminal, text and all. A desk looked like a desk. They weren't simply wallpapers, they were fully realized customizations. Google, why are you removing features and abilities and pretending it is an improvement?

11. Why is there an advertisement between my emails and my action buttons? This seems like the very last place I want an advertisement.

12. The old look did not require me to think. This one does. This is not simply familiarity, this is a fundamental hiding and obscuring of information to fit some stranger's foreign concept of 'cleaner'.

Simply make a theme that behaves like the old, classic Gmail. Save yourself from the wrath and frustration of your customer base. Is that too much to ask?


And a final cathartic gripe related to older changes, what I really miss is a text-based Compose button. I used to 'Open in New Tab' all the time to Compose a new message outside of my general emailing. Now, I have to open the inbox in a new tab and then press Compose. More steps for the sake of a giant button.

The entire new look seems to follow that mentality. More steps and less customization for the sake of an emptier screen and obscurity.
 
I do not have unbridled rage but I do hate it. That is why I use the Metro Mail app or Outlook 2010.
 
Google have taken minimalism too far. It works with Chrome because it provides larger screen real estate for the webpage but it's pointless to do it with Gmail. Buttons without labels is my biggest gripe.
 
The new Gmail and G+ are crap. I can use them, sure, and they aren't hindering me at all, but I don't like the new interfaces. Just some crap design choices. I continue to use them, though, as they don't stop me from working. Just not impressed.
 
The new look with compact view & horizontal split is just the way I like it when I'm not at home, otherwise I use 64-bit Thunderbird.
 
I have had my gmail addresses so long, I don't want to change them. So I just set up imap with Outlook, and almost NEVER log into gmail's website anymore.
 
Kaos_Drem said:
I didn't write this, but this accurately describes nearly all the problems with the new version.
Click to expand...

A good chuck of those can be fixed by just turning on options from the Labs section. (Reply All, GChat and Calendar together, possibly more)

Some of them I can't identify with since I am using Google Apps Enterprise (ad placement, contacts not having icons), but I will say that if your contacts are on Google Plus or have a Google Profile with a photo set up (everyone here at work does, since we have to), the new interface makes it easier to tell who said what in a conversation.

Also, having to think about the interface is just an artifact of any type of interface change at all. Being able to drop in a new design that's so good the user doesn't even have to think about it is the holy grail of interface design; Google's not there yet.
 
CEpeep said:
A good chuck of those can be fixed by just turning on options from the Labs section. (Reply All, GChat and Calendar together, possibly more)

Some of them I can't identify with since I am using Google Apps Enterprise (ad placement, contacts not having icons), but I will say that if your contacts are on Google Plus or have a Google Profile with a photo set up (everyone here at work does, since we have to), the new interface makes it easier to tell who said what in a conversation.

Also, having to think about the interface is just an artifact of any type of interface change at all. Being able to drop in a new design that's so good the user doesn't even have to think about it is the holy grail of interface design; Google's not there yet.
Click to expand...

Thats just it though, if you aren't to the point where your natural progression of an interface for a service that requires thought in the first place (email) is to have a new style that as an ungodly long acclimation period to the point where it feels unnatural, you haven't achieved your goal and on the contrary you have failed to the point of going back to square one. In this case though, google has decided that square one isn't good enough and instead launched a service that only faintly resembles something that was nearly perfect in usability.
 
Kaos_Drem said:
Thats just it though, if you aren't to the point where your natural progression of an interface for a service that requires thought in the first place (email) is to have a new style that as an ungodly long acclimation period to the point where it feels unnatural, you haven't achieved your goal and on the contrary you have failed to the point of going back to square one. In this case though, google has decided that square one isn't good enough and instead launched a service that only faintly resembles something that was nearly perfect in usability.
Click to expand...

No, not really. The old Gmail was hardly a shining pinnacle of web interface design. It was designed for a world where people only browsed the web on a computer, with a mouse, at 1024x768 resolution. At least this Gmail properly supports tablet/touch input and is virtually resolution independent. (Now you can configure the vertical space between emails! Isn't that nifty?)

Gmail's job isn't to be the best desktop email client (since that was already done, over 15 years ago). Its job is to be the best webmail client and to present a consistent, usable interface across all platforms with web browsers. Also, not enough has actually changed that anyone should have an "ungodly long acclimation period" to the new interface, we're mostly just talking about buttons being moved/relabeled on that front.
 
CEpeep said:
No, not really. The old Gmail was hardly a shining pinnacle of web interface design. It was designed for a world where people only browsed the web on a computer, with a mouse, at 1024x768 resolution. At least this Gmail properly supports tablet/touch input and is virtually resolution independent. (Now you can configure the vertical space between emails! Isn't that nifty?)

Gmail's job isn't to be the best desktop email client (since that was already done, over 15 years ago). Its job is to be the best webmail client and to present a consistent, usable interface across all platforms with web browsers. Also, not enough has actually changed that anyone should have an "ungodly long acclimation period" to the new interface, we're mostly just talking about buttons being moved/relabeled on that front.
Click to expand...

Still doesn't excuse them from denying the option to revert to the old gmail should someone want to. Not everyone uses their phone/tablet to check their email. Not everyone wants/uses touch input while reading emails, and considering there were already apps for that I don't see the purpose of having gmail look the same on a 960x540 screen as it does on a 2560x1600 screen. I have more space I should be able to utilize it differently.
 
After I tried to use Google Apps for a small business I was working with (they were using some awful free pop3 email from their host) I swore off anything Google for business in the future (and anything for myself too - stuck with my Gmail accounts because I've had them for years).

Terrible, slow tech support... the limitations were asinine, especially on file attachments.. the synchronization was extremely buggy... didn't work well with Outlook... I guess it's good for people who like the GMail/Docs interface?

Either way, went to Office 365 with them and they *LOVE* it - same price, works better with Outlook/iPhone. I'm considering buying myself a domain (very cheap) and just spending $4 a month on proper email service that doesn't scan my email for sales information.
 
The only thing I've have a problem with for ages is the lack of a immediately visible sign out button. :(
 
It is worth the price.
I can get an email account for free that i can check anywhere there is a connection to the internet.
People are so afraid of change and like to bitch.
 
I use PopPeeper and I hardly login to the web interface once I associate my accounts. I should have done this ages ago, but I know how much I hate outlook express in a non business environment. I'm glad something light weight came up on the horizon.
 
I don't like it.

1. I don't like the icons. It was so much easier to click the button that said delete than to find the stupid trashcan icon.

2. The ads in between the action buttons and the emails or body text is stupid. Put it back on top.

3. Give me back a one click sign off.

4. Granted, this has always been a gmail problem: Let me "move" filtered emails (through the search function) to a different "folder" instead of just playing with the damn labels.
 
This change isn't really new, it's been this way for several months now and I've gotten used to it.
 
I definitely prefer the original interface as well, but I mainly use a mail client, so it didn't really affect me.
 
Change the scheme to compact and it looks much like the old one. It took some time to get used to, but overall I prefer it.
 
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