5 ms·

I must be the only one who likes the new Google interface.

lambda 16y ago
Am I the only one who's been seeing the new interface for several months now? I only saw it in one of my browsers, so I figured they were doing a slow rollout, but it sounds like everyone else has been taken by surprise by the new interface, while I figured it was public knowledge long ago.
- revaaron 16y ago
  Nope, me too. I've had it for a few weeks. Don't like it much, wastes space, but it's not the end of the world. Oddly enough, the old look is showing up for me now- I'd been using the new look in this browser for weeks.
meroliph 16y ago
No, you're not.
- andybak 16y ago
  I haven't noticed any problems with it. Would somebody care to list the worst 3 horrors of the new layout in order of ruining-my-life-ability?
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    I don't think that covers it. Imagine you're living in a house for years, one day some guy comes in and changes everything subtly. The walls are just a different shade, everything gets moved around a fraction. Nothing dramatic, just a lot of small changes. You'd walk in and feel like you are in an unfamiliar place. Unfamiliar ties right in with 'danger' on the reptilian brain level and that manifests itself as a feeling of being uncomfortable. Give it four weeks, change it back and people will be arguing the exact same thing. Change always leads to resistance of this sort, even change for the better.
    - mixmax 16y ago
      That is so very true. Great companies know this and have the guts to go ahead and make the needed changes anyway. Your point also hints at the fact that asking users isn't always the right thing to do - often they don't know exactly what they want. Either because they can't imagine it or because of the friction you describe.
    - tel 16y ago
      Sounds like there might be an interesting psychology at play. Anecdotally, I didn't even notice the changes until they pleasantly surprised me. I wonder how many others feel this way.
    - mrtron 16y ago
      Exactly what I was thinking when I heard the complaints about the new interface. Objectively I think it is a change for the better - but it does feel just a bit off. Many websites have these issues. People cried foul to Fark when they did a redesign. An employee was fired for saying 'You will get over it'. People did.
    - pg 16y ago
      I've been working on software design for a long time and I'm pretty sure the problem with the Google redesign is not merely that users are unfamiliar with it. They've made classic design errors. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1326795 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1326795
      - jacquesm 16y ago
        That's very well possible. But in my experience, running a roughly million-member website for over 12 years any change we ever made led to the exact same pattern: - initial bitching - gradual acceptance - the new is much better than the old This usually over a period of 3 months or so. And that's for improvements and mistakes alike. There seems to be an automatic component to all this that is 'conservative', as in 'opposed to any change'. Time will tell on this one, if google reverts to the old lay-out then the conclusion is that they also thought that it was better before. But it is very well possible that this 'worse' lay-out is actually better for google, even if it is worse for the users, for instance because it increases their bottom line. A design error is not always a business error.
  - troels 16y ago
    Putting more information in the same space, makes it harder to consume. The minimalist approach that Google has always had to UX, is part of what made them good.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      Google has been slowly putting more information in to that same space over the years and hardly anybody noticed. The reason why people noticed this is because google bit the bullet and changed a lot of stuff in one go because these changes are tied in to each other at a level that if they did it gradual the site would not look consistent. It was a very brave thing of them to do this because they must have realized it would lead to some backlash, but I really can't see how they could have done so differently anyway. They needed to 'get with the times' again in a way that gives them room enough to get back to small changes, think of it as a spring housecleaning. Give it four weeks and everybody will be used to the new site and this problem will go away. As things come on the web google is still minimalist, only a little less so than last week. A bigger issue with google is the creeping pollution of the search results for 'web' searches with more and more non-relevant links to googles own sites and/or paid links.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
yanw 16y ago
No, it's just those who disprove are typically much more vocal.
thirdusername 16y ago
It depends a bit on what iteration they are on, it's been changing like mad for me over the past couple of days. At some point during all of that I had the knee jerk reaction of landing on a spam site and to overcome the instinct of navigating away, which was awkward.
MikeCapone 16y ago
I don't have a strong opinion on it yet, but I think that once I'm used to it, I'll probably find it an improvement.
detst 16y ago
I was definitely with you but when I just did a search with the old interface, it felt very right.
nollidge 16y ago
I'm actually completely indifferent to it. I completely ignore the left sidebar thingy.

Am I the only one who's been seeing the new interface for several months now? I only saw it in one of my browsers, so I figured they were doing a slow rollout, but it sounds like everyone else has been taken by surprise by the new interface, while I figured it was public knowledge long ago.

revaaron 16y ago
Nope, me too. I've had it for a few weeks. Don't like it much, wastes space, but it's not the end of the world. Oddly enough, the old look is showing up for me now- I'd been using the new look in this browser for weeks.

meroliph 16y ago

No, you're not.

andybak 16y ago
I haven't noticed any problems with it. Would somebody care to list the worst 3 horrors of the new layout in order of ruining-my-life-ability?
- jacquesm 16y ago
  I don't think that covers it. Imagine you're living in a house for years, one day some guy comes in and changes everything subtly. The walls are just a different shade, everything gets moved around a fraction. Nothing dramatic, just a lot of small changes. You'd walk in and feel like you are in an unfamiliar place. Unfamiliar ties right in with 'danger' on the reptilian brain level and that manifests itself as a feeling of being uncomfortable. Give it four weeks, change it back and people will be arguing the exact same thing. Change always leads to resistance of this sort, even change for the better.
  - mixmax 16y ago
    That is so very true. Great companies know this and have the guts to go ahead and make the needed changes anyway. Your point also hints at the fact that asking users isn't always the right thing to do - often they don't know exactly what they want. Either because they can't imagine it or because of the friction you describe.
  - tel 16y ago
    Sounds like there might be an interesting psychology at play. Anecdotally, I didn't even notice the changes until they pleasantly surprised me. I wonder how many others feel this way.
  - mrtron 16y ago
    Exactly what I was thinking when I heard the complaints about the new interface. Objectively I think it is a change for the better - but it does feel just a bit off. Many websites have these issues. People cried foul to Fark when they did a redesign. An employee was fired for saying 'You will get over it'. People did.
  - pg 16y ago
    I've been working on software design for a long time and I'm pretty sure the problem with the Google redesign is not merely that users are unfamiliar with it. They've made classic design errors. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1326795 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1326795
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      That's very well possible. But in my experience, running a roughly million-member website for over 12 years any change we ever made led to the exact same pattern: - initial bitching - gradual acceptance - the new is much better than the old This usually over a period of 3 months or so. And that's for improvements and mistakes alike. There seems to be an automatic component to all this that is 'conservative', as in 'opposed to any change'. Time will tell on this one, if google reverts to the old lay-out then the conclusion is that they also thought that it was better before. But it is very well possible that this 'worse' lay-out is actually better for google, even if it is worse for the users, for instance because it increases their bottom line. A design error is not always a business error.
- troels 16y ago
  Putting more information in the same space, makes it harder to consume. The minimalist approach that Google has always had to UX, is part of what made them good.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    Google has been slowly putting more information in to that same space over the years and hardly anybody noticed. The reason why people noticed this is because google bit the bullet and changed a lot of stuff in one go because these changes are tied in to each other at a level that if they did it gradual the site would not look consistent. It was a very brave thing of them to do this because they must have realized it would lead to some backlash, but I really can't see how they could have done so differently anyway. They needed to 'get with the times' again in a way that gives them room enough to get back to small changes, think of it as a spring housecleaning. Give it four weeks and everybody will be used to the new site and this problem will go away. As things come on the web google is still minimalist, only a little less so than last week. A bigger issue with google is the creeping pollution of the search results for 'web' searches with more and more non-relevant links to googles own sites and/or paid links.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

yanw 16y ago

No, it's just those who disprove are typically much more vocal.

thirdusername 16y ago

It depends a bit on what iteration they are on, it's been changing like mad for me over the past couple of days. At some point during all of that I had the knee jerk reaction of landing on a spam site and to overcome the instinct of navigating away, which was awkward.

MikeCapone 16y ago

I don't have a strong opinion on it yet, but I think that once I'm used to it, I'll probably find it an improvement.

detst 16y ago

I was definitely with you but when I just did a search with the old interface, it felt very right.

nollidge 16y ago

I'm actually completely indifferent to it. I completely ignore the left sidebar thingy.