17 ms·
Uber's Design Meltdown
- rl3 11y agoI really hope the writers of Silicon Valley somehow work this into the show. Unfortunately Uber's timing is such that it'll probably have to be season 4.
- wodenokoto 11y agoFor someone not part of the design process, the author sure seems to know how everybody on the team has been feeling during the redesign process.
- indifferentalex 11y agoI don't know why you would comment something so "simple" (if you actually read the article, if you didn't then I'm wasting our time) when the author clearly (albeit sarcastically) points out that "Obviously designers have no right to comment unless they were in the room with the Uber designers during the design process". Surely you should come up with a stronger rebuttal than simply paraphrasing _his_ sarcastic comment?
- wodenokoto 11y agoI think he has every right to point out that the design is bad (I think it is too) but to me many of the phrases reads like he knows that the designers behind the logo also thinks it was a bad design, and that the designers suffered during the process. He shouldn't speak on behalf of the design teams thoughts or processes and stick to commenting on the final result. Maybe I just read some of the sarcastic parts too literally. > "Obviously designers have no right to comment unless they were in the room with the Uber designers during the design process" I think we can all agree, that when it comes to the quality of a logo or visual identity, the end customer is always right. If people paying for Uber services can't recognize Uber, or get negative associations with their visual identity, no design process can make up for it.
- bigbadgoose 11y agoit's the same everywhere for designers; they study, work, and spend their lives designing but at the end of the day are subject to the whims of a business unit or product owner. it doesn't take any training or thought at all to know what you like or dislike. but i agree with the author, this fiasco and even more so, the yahoo! logo redesign my mayer are just colossal crap theater. i actually don't know what's worse, doing it over a weekend and crowing about it or taking 18 months and then crowing about it.
- ncke 11y agoWow, I didn't think the day would come when I felt sorry for designers.
- binarymax 11y agoAll they needed to do was rotate the icon 90' clockwise and it would have satisfied everyone. --EDIT-- For clarity: http://imgur.com/sZN6g2i http://imgur.com/sZN6g2i ...still looks like a 'U'
- secstate 11y agoYeah, I think that was the bit where, when animated, the logo works. But rarely will a sticker on a car be animated, at least in this decade. That said, designers often over-worry about logos initially. If you put enough marketing power behind it and the company is still on a growth curve, the logo will eventually become associated with the brand and it wont matter whether it was obviously a 'U', a Chinese coin or a ghost ;) EDIT: The question now is, is uber on such a growth curve that they can still get away with this. My gut says 'no,' but only time will tell.
- hammock 11y agoIf your logo doesn't matter much later on, and therefore you shouldn't worry much about it early on, then when should you care about it?
- jdmichal 11y agoIt's not that the logo doesn't matter. It's that the specific shape of the logo doesn't matter. As long as it's unique and recognizable, over time it will come to be associated with your brand. As an example, think of car emblems. What does 4 rings have anything to do with Audi? The roundel with BMW? The bowtie with Chevrolet? Of course, these all have a historical significance, but there's no direct tie between the shapes and the name. It could just as easily be Audi's roundel and BMW's bowtie. But yet all are distinct visuals intimately tied to the brand.
- 50CNT 11y agoNot much at all, or when you're bored, and have time to waste. Does it look clean, professional and trustworthy? You have decent vector images of it? No negative associations? Just run with it, there's better things designer time can be spent on. I think there's two reasons for changing it afterwards. It is starting to clash with the visual design of the site around it, and needs some touch-ups, or your company is moulting, and shedding it's past skin.
- secstate 11y agoWas it just me, or was the uBar advert at the bottom of the title really oddly placed. It was almost as if it were going to be part of the article. How the brand was becoming associated with crap software too. Meanwhile that was totally just a horribly placed ad for the site ...
- ddorian43 11y agoDamn, the ads have devolved and are harder to block. At least don't show the ad to non-macs.
- coldpie 11y agoIt's just a straight-up image and a link. While I hate advertising, this is a compromise I'm willing to accept.
- davb 11y agoAbsolutely. I'd trade what we're stuck with today for simple, self-hosted images and links (no trackers, third party scripts, creepiness) in a heartbeat. This is advertising done right.
- mirimir 11y agoI guess. But damn, I'm so used to not seeing ads that I spent maybe 10 seconds wondering how the image was relevant to the article. "Maybe UBAR is an Uber side project?", I was thinking. Then I saw "SPONSOR" ;)
- eli 11y agoAs more people block ads, ads will get harder to block
- alwaysAttending 11y agoDisable your JavaScript for maximum benefit
- rwmj 11y agoHe seems very bitter about something.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- randomname2 11y agoYes. The author obviously has an axe to grind, implying Kalanick is an "elitist", "drooling idiot" who picked the logo "impulsively", "doesn't know what his own intentions are", and "shouldn't be in charge of Uber's brand" (all actual quotes from the article). Flagged this submission for gratuitous negativity and for being a hit piece on Uber and some of Uber's employees, disguised as design critique.
- elischiff 11y agoThis has to be a joke. You must realize I am a design critic.
- coldcode 11y agoNo critic is accepted in their own country. I like your criticism, the CEO is a blithering idiot, and the logo matches.
- randomname2 11y agoDesign critique is fine but this piece is riddled with personal attacks on Uber employees and political attacks on Uber as a company. You must realize this as well, as you changed the link "Uber is publicly struggling with its image" from a gossipy, political piece [1] to a more balanced piece [2] a few minutes ago. [1] https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-far-ub https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-f... [2] http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/02/uber-drivers-rates-protest-sf/ http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/02/uber-drivers-rates-protes...
- elischiff 11y ago
- tosseraccount 11y ago"Leading up to the Super Bowl, Uber’s Twitter feed was all puppies." Does the writer not get that the "Puppy Bowl" was on at the time? Animal Planet's special show is very popular alternative to the "Let's not compete with Super Bowl" lull on TV.
- m52go 11y agoFor the record, it's happened more than once now that I look through my app menu and see the new Uber icon and have no idea what it is. Takes me a second to think about it and remember this 'rebranding'. It's one of the worst things they could have done at a time when they need a strong brand the most.
- MicroBerto 11y agoEspecially when a serious number of your customers are drunk when they are looking for your services....
- goldenkey 11y agoI was sober and honestly thought the new logo was my uber app being updated. And the square meant the update was paused. Absolutely terrible rebranding. The U was recognizable and iconic. What in the sands of silicom valley were they thinking? http://cdn.igeeksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/How-to-Fix-Apps-Stuck-at-Waiting-in-iOS-7.x-When-Installing-Updating.jpg http://cdn.igeeksblog.com/wp-content/uploads/How-to-Fix-Apps...
- dsmithatx 11y agoYes I had no idea it changed. I went to get an Uber the other night and after 10 minutes of looking for the app I gave up and went back in the house. I left my glasses at work and was frustrated.
- notduncansmith 11y agoIf you are ever struggling to find an app on iOS, you can swipe down at the home screen to search. I'd imagine Android has similar functionality
- yawaramin 11y agoIn fact, the latest iOS has brought back the search screen as the left-most page, you can get to it now by swiping right.
- kull 11y agoWait, but finally what does this shape/icon mean?
- deciplex 11y agoApropos of nothing: > English is the lingua franca of the world I love reading, and hearing, these words. Heh.
- dagw 11y agoIt helps that English adapts to the current zeitgeist relatively fast and can kind of act as an ombudsman for the spreading of news concepts and ideas to other languages.
- soft_dev_person 11y agoYes. Just ignore people's schadenfreude. They behave like in kindergarten. Just slalom through the maelstrom of lemmings that they are. Ok, I took it too far. I'll go have a lager now.
- HillRat 11y agoMany people think the term arose because of the dominance of French in diplomatic circles, but I t's actually quite apropos; "lingua franca" is an early medieval term that essentially translates to "language of the Western Europeans" ("Franca" in this context is not modern France, but a term for historical Germany -- everything north of modern Spain, essentially). In the day, lingua franca was a patois consisting of bits of various languages that all traders in the region knew and could communicate in, though it was too mutable to be a stable language as such. Not unlike English, actually!
- jbattle 11y agoI had always just assumed it meant "French" so you got me reading (thanks!). Wiki seems to indicate the original lingua franca was based on the language of the Franks and mostly used in the eastern Med. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Lingua_Franca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Lingua_Franca
- calebm 11y agoTrue, it does seem like a contradictory sentence. Here, I'll fix it: "English is the common language of the world." :)
- repomies691 11y agoHow much a branding has actually impact in a product like this? Uber is pretty much the only option for ridesharing in my country, and I guess in most countries in the world. I guess you can harm the brand a little by doing some redesign or something, but I think in the end it doesn't matter that much. The most important thing is that the product works, for a good enough price. I personally at least don't care a bit what the uber icon on my phone is, and I doubt that majority of consumers do.
- VeilEm 11y agoIt's not insignficant. For one, the app icon looks completely different now. I had thought for a moment that I had uninstalled uber inadvertently before remembering their brand redesign in the tech press. For those not following the tech press, they probably had a harder time figuring out how to call an uber app. They destroyed their brand in one fell swoop their new logo is entirely new. The good news for Uber is though that they are so essential and ubiquitous there's no danger of this impacting their business.
- bhouston 11y agoIt is fun bashing uber but I am not sure this is quite as bad in all respects as this article makes out. In particular I like the black square icon, it is bold and unique. Their Android and ios icons though are pretty bad. Too bad they couldn't have stayed with the bold black square for those as well with some way to ensure it has good visibility. Black monolith icon -- I like it.
- tragic 11y agoOP likes it too, unless he's being sarcastic. Really, it's hard to tell sometimes. > The bit makes for a great favicon, and reminds us of the great work of early modernist painters. Left, Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915. Right, Uber Favicon, 2016. > Of all the brands based on squares, Uber's is the most exciting.
- StavrosK 11y agoI read that as clear sarcasm.
- goldenkey 11y agoIts definitely sarcasm, you cant trademark a square.
- manicdee 11y agoThe comparison of the solid black square to famous art, and a description of the level of excitement about a brand "based on squares" where the brand is exactly only a square: those are the sarcastic components here. These might even be interpreted as parody ("here is a great work of art by Uber, which is comparable in insight and execution to this work by a lesser known artist.")
- runn1ng 11y agoThe logo of the app looks like a Chinese bank logo. A lot of Chinese - and to a certain point Vietnamese - banks have logos with square inside a circle, since that's how Chinese money used to look like. When Uber updated, I wondered what is that Chinese bank app doing on my Android.
- meric 11y agoI wonder if this destruction of brand equity will mean Uber have to write down the "intangible assets" section of their balance sheet.
- callumlocke 11y agoThis reads like an oddly smug attack on a fairly successful redesign.
- rtpg 11y agoHow do you define success here? Genuinely curious. I think the new Uber typography is fine, but I really don't know how you defend that icon.
- s986s 11y agoDidnt realize you posted this. At the time it was empty
- s986s 11y agoSuccessful in what regard? Financially? artistically? It was completed? A critical internet community criticized it? Successful is a very broad term. You may be correct, i just have no way to prove you are
- callumlocke 11y agoMeh, it looks good to me. It still says Uber underneath the icon. It took me a couple more seconds of confused scanning the first time I went to order a cab after the redesign, but that's not too bad. And the logo looks more mainstream, less like some elite chauffeur service, which is good. I don't really see any problem. And this article doesn't ever really give much aesthetic critique. It's just a weird, bitter hit piece about someone else's imagined motives.
- mratzloff 11y agoYou may be qualified to be Uber's new CEO.
- s986s 11y agoIm left to question what ubers motive was. No use of a U. Not simular to any logo in the past. Logo easily can be confused with other applications. I dont think uber had ill will but I dont think they thought this through aside from "rebrand time". Really, this article just says what many people are thinking
- mangeletti 11y agoThe first thing that came to my mind when I first saw their new icon was electroencephalogram stickers[1], or maybe those stickers that hold on heart monitors in the hospital. 1. see pic on the right here: http://www.epilepsygroup.com/notes6-35-63/new_patient.php http://www.epilepsygroup.com/notes6-35-63/new_patient.php EDIT: I was told by my friend who is a nurse that the more accurate example would be "telemetry leads" - http://www.wireless-technology-advisor.com/images/cardiac-telemetry-1.jpg http://www.wireless-technology-advisor.com/images/cardiac-te...
- twic 11y agoFun fact about those leads: the clips that hold the leads to the electrode pads are of many different specifications, i think specific to the manufacturer, so you can't change the lead (and so the monitor) attached to a patient without replacing the pads. Hence my slightly comical experience of sitting in an ambulance during a transfer from my local accident and emergency department to a specialist cardiac hospital, topless, having my electrodes replaced, then going through the same procedure after the ten-minute drive to the destination! If someone could disrupt that, that would be great, thanks.
- tetron 11y agoBasically, designers have to put up with the same management bullshit as developers, except with significantly less respect for the difficulty of their craft.
- picrow 11y agoWhat? Have you ever had a job? You must be 12 or work at google. because everywhere i've been, tech depts are treated like redheaded lepers and designers and managers get all the glory.
- edem 11y agoWhat a clickbait title. This is not about meltdown but design.
- mosburger 11y agoYeah, I think it was supposed to be a pun referencing the "atom" inspiration for the design (not that I disagree).
- goldenkey 11y agoYou mean brand schizophrenia where the lead designers leave your company after you destroy their integrity?
- forgetsusername 11y ago"Clickbait" is overused around here. It's the title of a blog piece. There are no rules that it's required to be hyper-descriptive. Nobody is being deceptive. Did you really think the article related to some sort of nuclear meltdown and Uber?
- Karunamon 11y agoWhen I hear the words "company" and "nuclear meltdown", my first thought is something catastrophic and immediately bad happening. Founders dying, sudden regulatory changes, stuff like that. And I'm going to guess that most people thought the same. "Oh crap, what happened to Uber?" A freaking logo redesign does not qualify. Less so when it's brand new and nobody even has the logical basis to make an educated guess as to what its impacts might be. So yes, clickbait. The headline wrote a check the article couldn't cash.
- ch8230 11y agoIts a meltdown of brand identity that occurred during the redesign.
- draw_down 11y agoI wouldn't really call what happened here "design".
- BillTheCat 11y agoAre we supposed to know who Amin is? The article starts referring to him with no introduction.
- jmcdowell 11y agoDid you skim read? It introduces him as: "One can be sure that Uber's Design Director, Shalin Amin".
- BillTheCat 11y agoThat's been edited in after my comment Compare to http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2016/2/16/ubers-atomic-meltdown http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
- flyosity 11y agoI think one of the best points of this piece is referencing the iconic U sticker that nearly all Uber drivers have on their windshield or passenger window. When I've taken an Uber in an unfamiliar city (the bulk of my Uber trips basically) and I'm on a busy street corner, seeing the unmistakeable black-and-white sticker lets me know quickly and simply that I'm hopping into the right car, or where to start walking if it's 100' away. What will the new Uber car sticker look like from afar? A circuit board? A community college parking lot pass? There's no way it will be as obvious and instantly recognizable as a big U sticker. In fact I can't even imagine Uber drivers will swap their decals out, ever, so it'll create a rift in the overall brand (drivers with U stickers, website/app with the new brand) and increase overall confusion with passengers.
- jonknee 11y agoAt least in Seattle they now have colored bars that identify the car (you can select the color in the app, it's an LED strip). http://mashable.com/2015/12/03/uber-spot-light-color-code/ http://mashable.com/2015/12/03/uber-spot-light-color-code/ The problem with just having a logo is in many places there are lots of very similar Ubers (oh hey my Prius is here!).
- brbcoding 11y agoAlways thought Lyft should have done this but by using a color changing LED version of the lighted mustache that some drivers have.
- lhnz 11y agoI actually wrote about something extremely similar back in 2014 [0]. Great to see that they came up with the same approach on their own, and that they simplified it; I'd assumed that the LED would be colour + nickname and not just colour. [0] https://twitter.com/nouswaves/status/537609194506305537 https://twitter.com/nouswaves/status/537609194506305537
- lechevalierd3on 11y agoThanks to you they can not patent it now...
- nxzero 11y agoHuge shifts like this are confusing to consumers. Companies like Starbucks understand that you can be fresh without looking like you're going through an identity crisis. Luckily for Uber, what people really care about is the service they're getting, not the logo for it.
- kawsper 11y agoInteresting read. Funnily enough, I used Uber three days ago and didn't notice any chance at all. But after I read the article I checked the Uber logo on my iPhone, and there it was, the new logo staring at me.
- terda12 11y agoThe article reads like the author has a personal hatred against Uber, it makes it hard for me to accept his opinions. Would have been better if he took a more objective look at Uber's redesign instead of taking the time to bash the CEO or the designers.
- Angostura 11y agoIndeed, I'm not a massive fan of Uber, but the continual snark against both Uber and Wired in the piece made me dubious about taking the critique seriously.
- woah 11y agoThere may be some snark, but it's entirely appropriate. I think it's a piece written for designers, who regularly have to deal with micromanagement from talentless, egotistical people. Except in Uber's case, things were ten times worse than usual.
- untog 11y agoThis comment reads like the author has a personal reflexive defensiveness for Uber, it makes it hard for me to accept your opinions.
- at-fates-hands 11y agoHonestly? This looks like Nixon's logo, just tipped on the side and modified slightly: http://logonoid.com/images/nixon-logo.jpg http://logonoid.com/images/nixon-logo.jpg
- wahsd 11y agoNot to detract but it's a somewhat similar issue albeit probably will never elevate to the same level, but LastPass also just went through a logo redesign and it's equally rather puzzling. The logo went from http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lastpass_logo.jpg?26523c http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lastpass... to https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VUywxm7hR04d-hXnhenjtLcwHGe69ypNh1wiLfni01PeDDNR89jB0OZg7ryloBGwhfaPo_5BcQ=s128-h128-e365 https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VUywxm7hR04d-hXnhenjtLcwHG... Considering things like that the three dots simply look like any number of other menu icons, especially on android where you can have three of those ellipsis type of icons in one view sometimes; I'm not sure that was all that smart of an idea. In case you didn't notice/realize it like I didn't, that's a cursor at the end of what are supposed to be three hidden characters. It's just an odd choice in my opinion.
- jleader 11y agoAccording to https://blog.lastpass.com/2016/02/meet-the-new-lastpass-logo.html/ https://blog.lastpass.com/2016/02/meet-the-new-lastpass-logo... they had to come up with a new logo due to "an unanticipated trademark lawsuit, filed early last year".
- dublinben 11y ago>that's a cursor at the end of what are supposed to be three hidden characters That was immediately obvious to me. I'm neither a designer, nor have I ever actually used their product. I think it's an excellent logo because it is instantly evocative of how you use their product.
- wahsd 11y agoOk, now scale down that image about 25 times to icon size. This one is about 4 times larger than the used icon.
- Eiriksmal 11y agoAmen. E*Trade (I completely forgot they are "ee asterisk trade," not "eetrade") sued them over the lovely asterisk, so now we're stuck with this thing that looks like the "action!" movie clapboard device. The big blobby square indicating how many profiles match under the dots is distracting. Maybe my eyes will stop flickering to that once I adjust, but it's not an improvement over the asterisk, in my mind. I get the idea, but it just seems to messy, especially by incorporating a UI element indicating where the cursor is into your design. tldr; trademark suits are the worst.
- klum 11y agoMaybe I'm just reading the wrong authors, but so much of the writing on design today let plain bad design slide because it has the right look/people/brand/tech/image. Eli Schiff's writing is maybe a bit more vitriolic than necessary at times (IMHO) but it's a very refreshing counterpoint.
- melted 11y agoWho gives a damn. At this point Uber could choose a turd as their logo, and they'd still be successful.
- outworlder 11y agoA turd would be more recognizable. The problem is not the brand, that's just a symptom of a far worse problem.
- melted 11y agoI bet there'd still be gnashing of teeth and consternation. :-)
- droningparrot 11y ago"The Uber brand guidelines were sure to make clear that they doesn't want their logo to be urinated on or to be associated with condoms or sex. Because there was a real danger that might have happened." I see ads for Uber on Grindr all the time. What's that about not associating the brand with sex?
- exelius 11y agoI'm never one to judge a rebrand immediately, as so many people were quick to do here. These things have a tendency to grow on you. But after living with the rebrand for a few weeks? It sucks, and it made me realize how all the things I used to like about Uber are disappearing. The simplicity was one of the best parts of Uber: you picked your service level, then ordered a pickup. That was it! These days, they've added a lot more friction to the process, and instituted carpooling rules. Never mind that surge pricing is almost always in effect -- I guess they're having a hard time retaining drivers? Ultimately, all Uber has long-term is a brand: their business model will be commoditized the day autonomous cars are integrated into a fleet management system. And they fucked up that brand: they went from a recognizable brand identified with the letter "U" to an unrecognizable glyph that looks more like a video game than a ride hailing app.
- hammock 11y agoThey are expanding into new markets, different customers. That goes a long way to explaining the increased complexity of pricing and options.
- exelius 11y agoI get it -- but it undermines their brand value, which is all they have. I avoided taxis because it was a high-friction transaction. Uber has been great because it is very, very low-friction. But they've introduced enough friction that I tried Lyft for the first time, which is a pretty bad sign. Also it's a lot easier to find drivers on Lyft anymore while Uber is on surge pricing half the time anymore...
- caseysoftware 11y agoThe implied - not sure it was ever stated - aspect of their branding was that the experience was about YOU. Getting the car, handling payment, not having to worry about all the details makes YOUR life easier. Their deals with Hilton and United to have a car ready whenever and wherever furthered that in my mind. So while the "U" meant "Uber" I always interpreted it a little bit differently. No clue what the backwards C means.
- atria 11y agoAm I the only one that sees the icon and thinks that it looks like an abstract drawing of the sphincter or the underside of your anatomy? Must be tortured remembrances of goatsee videos from years gone by. Perhaps there is a tie in with all those grindr ads. Personally I find the combination of moms, puppies, and sphincters a bit disturbing.
- BenoitEssiambre 11y agoThis logo shall henceforth be known as the "anal fissure".
- umutisik 11y agoSeeing the iOS logo always makes me think for a second that the app is being updated.
- hackaflocka 11y agoUber's rebranding is a management classic. It will be studied for decades as an example of what happens when committees create things.
- Laaw 11y agoIt took me like 30s to figure out the change, and I haven't had any problems with it since. Not sure this is going to topple the company. I think this is a case of, "I do this for a living so it's super duper important". The branding redesign probably isn't as important as this author claims.
- carc 11y agoI've never, ever in my life seen a rebranding or redesign that wasn't widely complained about. How can we differentiate between this kneejerk reaction that all humans seem to have to changes in a UI/design they are already familiar with, and actually bad redesigns/rebrandings?
- sparkzilla 11y agoUse the Uber redesign as the standard of poor redesign and you won't go far wrong.
- EvanPlaice 11y agoThe new logo looks like Pacman after assimilation by the Borg. Maybe that's indicative of the new 'data platform' development team they're actively recruiting for.
- Jordrok 11y agoOk, so supposedly the redesign is based on the idea of "bits and atoms". The atom at least seems to be based on the textbook image of a circular nucleus surrounded by lines of orbiting electrons. (Let's ignore the fact that the lines in the logo are pointing in totally nonsensical directions.) The "bit" though...why a square? A bit is a unit of measurement - it has no physical representation. Another circle would be just as valid. Maybe they're thinking of pixels? (Though those aren't always squares either...) Even if you can get past how pretentious the whole concept of the design is, it all falls down anyway once you realize that they're just making shit up.
- TrevorJ 11y agoIt's also not a theme that is unique to their brand at all. So you connect cyber and meatspace, ok, well what tech company in the last 20 years couldn't say that?
- SerLava 11y agoThis is what's blowing me away more than anything. It's literally the second thought that came to my mind. Only two possibilities: --A hundred Uber employees thought of this, and didn't say anything about it because they were scared of the CEO. --A hundred Uber employees thought of this, someone said something, and the CEO heard the words but did not even process them.
- brandonmenc 11y ago> It felt wrong for Uber’s global and local brands to revolve around the color preferences of a rich, white guy in California - even if that rich, white guy in California is the CEO. It worked for Steve Jobs at Apple.
- alecsmart1 11y agoJust wanted to say that Uber is used by the mass; It's not really a product for techies. So a lot of my friends thought that Uber has been deleted from their phone (as they weren't able to find the icon) and then went ahead and ordered a cab from the competitor.
- picrow 11y agoPretty ugly and meaningless symbols. A square and a circle with some lines... must be uber! lol Compare that with Coca-Cola where there is no mistaking it.
- Jemmeh 11y agoLately I've seen quite a few people reach for their phone, not find the Uber app right away and they just click on that pink mustache instead.
- rcurry 11y agoIs it just me, or does anyone else think those two icons look like toilet seats?
- soyiuz 11y agoI am confused. How's the app logo nowhere on the homepage? Did they go with UBER, black square, and the weird backward C thing all at the same time? In addition the font for Uber front page does not match the Uber logo once you log it (where the U seems to have a little curve to it). Get it together, people!
- TheGRS 11y agoHuh, haven't noticed that yet. This re-brand is so thoroughly weird in every way you could imagine. The original Uber site that I remember had a mark of professionalism and gave me a luxury limo vibe (though I knew it was just people's cars). This site has a more bubbly, AirBnB vibe, for better or worse I guess. I personally thought the professional vibe was better for their product.
- mahyarm 11y agoI remember similar sentiment when AirBnB did their rebrand. An article comparing the rebrands of the two companies would be interesting.
- arihant 11y agoI assumed the backwards 'C' was the incomplete progress bar. First I thought Uber is updating. Then when I realized it is the new icon, I thought it is meant to signify urgency of "your cab arriving." In no universe did I imagine an atom or a bit there. Why does the bit have a tail that makes an atom a backwards C? Pixel art on city landscapes would have conveyed their point better, and would have looked better.
- pmarreck 11y agoThe amount of hubris this article describes is staggering. And I say this as a long-time Uber fan.
- salgernon 11y agoAbout two weeks ago, I found myself in Manhattan, needing to get to a specific airport hotel near jfk for a 7am flight. I'd never used Uber before, so I downloaded the app - I knew nothing about the rebranding (which had happened at the time) but I found myself with a somewhat bewildering array of options - uber, uberx, uber black, uber pool, something else. Multiplied by choosing the type of vehicle? I had no idea what I should choose and I was in no mood to track down what to the designers and implementors meant by the various choices in the matrix. (Took the subway to something close, got out, got in a cab and got there for $20 total) I wish there had been a more scripted experience: where are you going? What's your timeframe? Do you have luggage or need to impress someone? Do you mind acting as a carpool dummy? Do you want conversation or quiet? Then pick from your array of checkboxes for me.
- mratzloff 11y agoJust as software wizards are in other contexts, that would be useful for a new user, but frustrating for a power user who knows exactly what they want and the quickest way to select it.
- goodplay 11y agoIt doesn't have to be one or the other; include a small switch at the bottom of the screen that alternates between the two representations.
- arthurcolle 11y agoMaintaining one consistent front-end is obnoxious enough from my biased personal experience with the UI/design aspect of building a web app... but I agree that it's probably a weak point that they offer so many disparate options but they are probably just gathering data with what works/what doesn't. Just guessing. I would imagine that eventually we'll see some (more? I don't know if its happened already) closures of the individual Uber product lines
- jaredmiwilliams 11y agoThe experience of a new user in your app can turn out to be a pretty critical moment when it comes to retention. Having a flow specifically for new users is common and does the job of easing them into whatever necessary complexity exists in your default state.
- mastazi 11y agoDo you remember the time that Marissa Mayer said, referring to Adobe Illustrator, "I’m not a pro, but I know enough to be dangerous" and then "helped" designing the new Yahoo logo? by that time, Mayer's (micro)management style had already resulted in the Lead Yahoo Mail Designer quitting the company[1]. This time it seems that, because of Kalanick's micromanagement of the Uber logo design, Uber's Head of Design has left the company[2]. A non-technical co-founder shouldn't write code, right? So I don't understand why a non-designer co-founder should design a logo. [1] http://www.inc.com/cody-steve/yahoo-logo-redesign-marissa-mayer.html http://www.inc.com/cody-steve/yahoo-logo-redesign-marissa-ma... [2] http://www.fastcodesign.com/3056457/fast-feed/ubers-head-of-design-steps-down http://www.fastcodesign.com/3056457/fast-feed/ubers-head-of-...
- quadrature 11y ago"For me, I’m using our recent successes as a chance to take time off to rest, reflect, and recharge. I miss being there for my kids and I’m making a decision that enables that. Soon, I’ll be ready to take up the next challenge and it’s going to be great." What part of that implies that he left because of the redesign ?.
- mastazi 11y agoYou are right, in the announcement he does not imply that. In my previous post I have written "it seems that" where maybe it should have been "it seems to me that". However please consider that: 1. he made the announcement just a few hours after the logo was presented to the public 2. according to numerous reports in the press, Kalanick closely managed the redesign. For these reasons I believe that my claim is not completely unfounded.
- Gustomaximus 11y agoThis is a common problem in marketing. Given marketing unseen soft skills it's common for people to feel they can be great contributors. I've literally had an occasion when a exec waited til marketing left the building and held design/programming staff back the night before a launch to implement his messaging, look and feel which had been previously discussed and rejected. And no joke, he had the gall to criticise the marketing team for the launch when it didn't get the traction expected. My jaw still hits the ground someone can be like this. While not normally as bad as that example, executive input is acceptable at some companies, typically from those people we've all seen whose confidence clearly outweighs their ability (though to be fair some people give great commentary too). In areas like brand its very difficult to 'prove' bad suggestions right or wrong as measuring impact/result is difficult given so many variables, and for what you can measure you'd have to run the alternate to truly know results, which is unrealistic. The other one I see is sales management get promoted to run marketing as many operations/finance leadership dont realise how different the skillsets are, assuming 'selling is selling'. For this, life is a bit easier in the performance marketing channels vs brand type channels. I've found the best solution is, rather than fight the political fight to keep them out, simply build what they want (assuming digital campaigns) and A/B test their campaign version. Afterwards be sure to present the results at a suitably high/wide level. Its win/win as if they contribute good work the company benefits from their insight which is great. And if they are the manager sticking their untalented nose in repeatedly, after several presentations (all done in a genuinely friendly manner) the bad internal press tends to keep them quiet, at least for a while. And to be fair, some marketing people are not the best themselves and probably deserve micro-management...
- ank_the_elder 11y ago"All in all, it is remarkable that the Uber team produced what they did given the circumstances–truly a testimonial to the patience of Uber's Design Director Shalin Amin and former Head of Design, Andrew Crow, who not so inconspicuously departed the company immediately after the redesign." Is there a difference between "head of design" and "design director"? They seem to have been at the company at the same time - correct? Just can't understand what the difference between these two positions would be...?
- nanocyber 11y agoI used to use Uber quite regularly. In the past year, I have had several drivers bring up, of their own volition, their dissatisfaction with the fact that tipping Uber drivers is uncommon. It is quite clearly stated in Uber's app and website that there is "no need to tip". I'm not a cheapskate, but I don't carry cash most of the time, and their veiled reminders/requests made me uncomfortable. It probably sounds strange, but the ridiculous logo change on top of the changing driver culture have made me remove Uber from my transportation-method choices. Fickle creature I am.
- rajacombinator 11y agoWow talk about a nuclear facepalm. I'd bet Uber doesn't make it through the crash if this is how their thinking process works at the top level.
- CIPHERSTONE 11y agoSeems like an example of a CEO with an over abundance of hubris.