4 ms·

Probably the same team that has usage data for hundreds of millions of users.

by imjared 13y ago

alayne 13y ago
I would love to see Google design a car with usage data. It would have one door and the trunk would be perpetually open.
- marknutter 13y ago
  But it would be self driving..
rayiner 13y ago
I'm gonna quote @kevingadd from down below because I can't say it better myself: "The new gmail is streamlined for particular purposes and not for others. You'd think that one of the biggest data companies in the universe would be able to gather actual data about how people use their software and ensure they aren't making it significantly worse to use for subsets of the customer base. Maybe this is what Google actually did, and they decided they don't care about the 1-10% of their users who use gmail for anything other than sending glorified SMS messages to people." The new gmail is a toy for kids.
- eropple 13y ago
  Guess I'm a kid, then? I find it faster to write an email on it than I did before and I like the ability to compose with another email in the background. GMail has some bits I don't like, but by and large I'm a pretty big fan.
- imjared 13y ago
  Glorified SMS? I get that the compose window is smaller but this is pretty unbelievably hyperbole. On my main screen, I get over 4000 characters before having to scroll and even on my 13" laptop screen, I can fit close to 1700 characters in the compose window before I get a scroll bar (http://cl.ly/image/0H1A2O3u251U http://cl.ly/image/0H1A2O3u251U). In contrast, the "old" version only gives me about 650 characters on my small screen (http://cl.ly/image/0h3O2H3g0P21 http://cl.ly/image/0h3O2H3g0P21). Perhaps I'm missing something but this seems to free up real estate.
  - ijk 13y ago
    It's glorified SMS in that the designer of the feature has explicitly said that they changed the design so that it would basically be glorified chat: > What it looks like, really, is a slightly oversized version of Gchat. And that’s no accident. Google’s actively trying to make email less fussy and formal--or, in other words, to make it a little more like instant messaging. And as Jason Cornwell, Gmail’s lead designer, explains, one of the ways to do that is simply to "give you permission to write shorter messages." [...] > "It was a space that was sort of intimidating, I think, to write a message like 'Hey, wanna get lunch?'" he explains. "We wanted the new compose to facilitate these quicker messages. Or at least make it a space where that felt appropriate." http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672250/how-a-tiny-new-compose-window-could-reinvent-gmail http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672250/how-a-tiny-new-compose-w...
    - exodust 13y ago
      "hey, let's meet for coffee soooooooon! your shout? :-)" Dear Google, please don't feel you need to give me permission to write the above. And definitely don't remove or change handy features to achieve such an objective. It's my business how I compose email, and my responsibility for justifying the occasions where a formal style is needed vs casual. Just make the interface useful and stop trying to turn email into something it's not.
asperous 13y ago
I thought good design was about designing for the extremes, not the mass majority of people that don't use your product to the fullest.
chetanahuja 13y ago
Please... Usage data is irrelevant. The UI design at google is now being run by dictat from the top. User studies and survey results are massaged until they can be contorted into conclusions that suite the already made design decisions.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  You're obviously going to need to justify that, since Google are fairly well known for heavy A/B testing, collect a tonne of data and make probably the most popular analytics tool on the web.
  - auctiontheory 13y ago
    That was before Marisa left.
  - chetanahuja 13y ago
    No not really. This is my observation and I'm sharing it. That's it.
xtracto 13y ago
Which can yield erroneous results if not used properly: http://www.stanford.edu/~savage/flaw/Article_files/image002.jpg http://www.stanford.edu/~savage/flaw/Article_files/image002....

Probably the same team that has usage data for hundreds of millions of users.

by imjared 13y ago

Probably the same team that has usage data for hundreds of millions of users.

I would love to see Google design a car with usage data. It would have one door and the trunk would be perpetually open.

marknutter 13y ago
But it would be self driving..

rayiner 13y ago

I'm gonna quote @kevingadd from down below because I can't say it better myself: "The new gmail is streamlined for particular purposes and not for others. You'd think that one of the biggest data companies in the universe would be able to gather actual data about how people use their software and ensure they aren't making it significantly worse to use for subsets of the customer base. Maybe this is what Google actually did, and they decided they don't care about the 1-10% of their users who use gmail for anything other than sending glorified SMS messages to people." The new gmail is a toy for kids.

eropple 13y ago
Guess I'm a kid, then? I find it faster to write an email on it than I did before and I like the ability to compose with another email in the background. GMail has some bits I don't like, but by and large I'm a pretty big fan.
imjared 13y ago
Glorified SMS? I get that the compose window is smaller but this is pretty unbelievably hyperbole. On my main screen, I get over 4000 characters before having to scroll and even on my 13" laptop screen, I can fit close to 1700 characters in the compose window before I get a scroll bar (http://cl.ly/image/0H1A2O3u251U http://cl.ly/image/0H1A2O3u251U). In contrast, the "old" version only gives me about 650 characters on my small screen (http://cl.ly/image/0h3O2H3g0P21 http://cl.ly/image/0h3O2H3g0P21). Perhaps I'm missing something but this seems to free up real estate.
- ijk 13y ago
  It's glorified SMS in that the designer of the feature has explicitly said that they changed the design so that it would basically be glorified chat: > What it looks like, really, is a slightly oversized version of Gchat. And that’s no accident. Google’s actively trying to make email less fussy and formal--or, in other words, to make it a little more like instant messaging. And as Jason Cornwell, Gmail’s lead designer, explains, one of the ways to do that is simply to "give you permission to write shorter messages." [...] > "It was a space that was sort of intimidating, I think, to write a message like 'Hey, wanna get lunch?'" he explains. "We wanted the new compose to facilitate these quicker messages. Or at least make it a space where that felt appropriate." http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672250/how-a-tiny-new-compose-window-could-reinvent-gmail http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672250/how-a-tiny-new-compose-w...
  - exodust 13y ago
    "hey, let's meet for coffee soooooooon! your shout? :-)" Dear Google, please don't feel you need to give me permission to write the above. And definitely don't remove or change handy features to achieve such an objective. It's my business how I compose email, and my responsibility for justifying the occasions where a formal style is needed vs casual. Just make the interface useful and stop trying to turn email into something it's not.

asperous 13y ago

I thought good design was about designing for the extremes, not the mass majority of people that don't use your product to the fullest.

chetanahuja 13y ago

Please... Usage data is irrelevant. The UI design at google is now being run by dictat from the top. User studies and survey results are massaged until they can be contorted into conclusions that suite the already made design decisions.

mcintyre1994 13y ago
You're obviously going to need to justify that, since Google are fairly well known for heavy A/B testing, collect a tonne of data and make probably the most popular analytics tool on the web.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  That was before Marisa left.
- chetanahuja 13y ago
  No not really. This is my observation and I'm sharing it. That's it.

xtracto 13y ago

Which can yield erroneous results if not used properly: http://www.stanford.edu/~savage/flaw/Article_files/image002.jpg http://www.stanford.edu/~savage/flaw/Article_files/image002....