And the thing is, Google UI/UX is not all that awful in many ways. Compared to some other corporate websites it looks and functions pretty well. But it could be

And the thing is, Google UI/UX is not all that awful in many ways. Compared to some other corporate websites it looks and functions pretty well. But it could be so much better and which we would expect for a company of Google's caliber. Having no way to do self-reflection to treat this problem is a bad sign that people inside Google are perhaps getting out of touch with what is really going out there. Or that there is enough inertia to block good design changes to pass through. Whatever it is, I would hope they would start stepping out of their own bubbles to actually understand what type of interfaces people like to use. Visit the factories with the machine consoles where there is only simple buttons and easy-to-understand menus for everything. And then try to retrace their path to the current interfaces and think why they have to be like what they are right now. It's like relationships, you probably get attracted at first by the appearance of things but it is when that wears off you get the sense of what the other person really is. With UIs, that novelty can wear off pretty quick if it feels like pulling out teeth to use it (Google Analytics is one horror show).