4 ms·

I found the icons a bit challenging at first (as a heavy user) but through that now. It's really awesome to use in comparison with any other client I've worked

by mtkd 15y ago

I found the icons a bit challenging at first (as a heavy user) but through that now. It's really awesome to use in comparison with any other client I've worked with. If I could change one thing it would be the unread/read background contrast.

steve-howard 15y ago
I dunno. Is it ever good UI design to replace clearly labeled buttons with cute but confusing icons? Just because you can get used to it doesn't mean it's a good change.
- dasil003 15y ago
  Yes, for heavy users, because it makes it easier to see the important textual content on the screen instead of a lot of UI elements.
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    Agreed, a minimalistic (but fully functional) interface lacking eye-candy is a positive for heavy users. It reduces noise on-screen.
- bluehavana 15y ago
  Yes. The time it takes to recognize something with your visual cortex is orders of magnitudes less than reading words. Learning what the icons mean might take a little time and one might argue that spacial patterns are learned when reading anyways.
  - lukeschlather 15y ago
    How do you know my visual cortex can't process words? It's just a few symbols, I doubt that the difference between one symbol and 10 is that different for a learning machine like the human brain. (Especially since the location of the symbols is what matters. They show up in the same place every time, you only need the general shape of the word to confirm that's that right one.)
cpeterso 15y ago
I also dislike that the email toolbar's buttons are now modal. (I don't believe they were modal before.) If select an email from a list, then new buttons appear and move the previous buttons to a different position on the page. This breaks users' muscle memory for clicking buttons quickly. I guess I should learn the gmail keyboard shortcuts..
- a3_nm 15y ago
  > I guess I should learn the gmail keyboard shortcuts.. Indeed you should. Muscle memory for clicking buttons is vastly inferior to muscle memory for hitting keys. All the more so for sequences of buttons and sequences of keys.

by mtkd 15y ago

steve-howard 15y ago

I dunno. Is it ever good UI design to replace clearly labeled buttons with cute but confusing icons? Just because you can get used to it doesn't mean it's a good change.

dasil003 15y ago
Yes, for heavy users, because it makes it easier to see the important textual content on the screen instead of a lot of UI elements.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Agreed, a minimalistic (but fully functional) interface lacking eye-candy is a positive for heavy users. It reduces noise on-screen.
bluehavana 15y ago
Yes. The time it takes to recognize something with your visual cortex is orders of magnitudes less than reading words. Learning what the icons mean might take a little time and one might argue that spacial patterns are learned when reading anyways.
- lukeschlather 15y ago
  How do you know my visual cortex can't process words? It's just a few symbols, I doubt that the difference between one symbol and 10 is that different for a learning machine like the human brain. (Especially since the location of the symbols is what matters. They show up in the same place every time, you only need the general shape of the word to confirm that's that right one.)

cpeterso 15y ago

I also dislike that the email toolbar's buttons are now modal. (I don't believe they were modal before.) If select an email from a list, then new buttons appear and move the previous buttons to a different position on the page. This breaks users' muscle memory for clicking buttons quickly. I guess I should learn the gmail keyboard shortcuts..

a3_nm 15y ago
> I guess I should learn the gmail keyboard shortcuts.. Indeed you should. Muscle memory for clicking buttons is vastly inferior to muscle memory for hitting keys. All the more so for sequences of buttons and sequences of keys.