There’s a fascinating discussion that ties nicely into into my recent post on workflows, that’s recently picked up since Doug Bowman decided to leave Google. Mr. Bowman is a designer, and has had some issues regarding Google’s priorities. The general takeaway from all this has been that Google places engineers’ data and statistics above the aesthetic sensibilities of the designer.
While I don’t work at Google, and I certainly don’t know the actual priority Google places on design, I’ve certainly had my gripes about their products in the past. And the main gripe therein generally revolves around design. Google’s applications — particularly their web apps such as Gmail — do function wonderfully. Gmail, in fact, works in ways that I’ve begun to find superior to desktop apps, even ones designed by Apple. The problem is, Google’s apps look like ass.
Yes, I have switched almost entirely to Gmail. Why? Because, frankly, it works better for me. It scales beautifully and offers features that no other client does without me ever having to manage it locally. Why, then, am I just making this move now, after years of doing it the Desktop way? Well, partly because Google’s apps look like ass. And if it’s email we’re talking about, that’s an ass I have to look at all frickin’ day long.
I should say, Gmail has gotten appreciably better over time. But it still lacks anything even remotely resembling the charm of an Apple-designed desktop application. Or even the panache of many websites, Apple’s MobileMe among them.
Apple's MobileMe Mail
I understand the approach they’re taking — blue links, black text, efficiency and clarity. And that’s great. But — and I hate that I’m even saying this — it’s so very Web 1.0. Seriously. It’s time to get over it.
Gmail's Latest Default Theme
I don’t advocate Gmail aping Apple’s mail clients by any means. But I do wish they’d pay a bit more attention to design. Or, if they are paying attention to design, do it better. The comparison here is stark. Google’s mail app looks like it came out of 1997. Which, in fact, it did. How is it that the best, most amazing mail client you can get for free looks like Windows 2000? It’s sad. Big, clunky, grayscale buttons; gray lists of black text; a blue border around the conversations list? This could look better, guys. I’m sure of it.
But why does all this matter? Well, I’m of an opinion, frankly, that the way things look is a part of your environment, and ugly things contribute to an ugly environment. And that ultimately hurts usability. I think that if Google were to make attempts to improve the design of Gmail — and I’m not just talking about themes here — they would discover numerous ways to improve the usability along the way. And that would make users happy. And that’s good for everyone.
Apple is, in fact, a great example of the triumph of design in usability as well as corporate success. Their computers since the clear-plastic, fruit-flavored iMacs have made everyone else look antiquated and backwards. This has thrust their image ahead of their competitors and has ultimately gained them marketshare.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The way things look is important. It speaks volumes. Google’s been immensely successful, and deservedly so. They make great stuff. But if they want to be even more successful they should really start taking design seriously. It’s a niche they’re leaving wide open for companies who do.
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The way things look is important, but the way things look is also *subjective*. Terribly so. I have a Macbook Pro and I think it looks like something Tandy would have come up with in 1979. Really, that whole slightly rounded silver design is TRS-80 style. Meanwhile, Apple fans laugh at how ugly the Thinkpad I really want is… but the Thinkpad’s industrial lines look really good to me, in a Harrison Ford hewn-from-honest-oak kind of way.
Google Mail looks good to me. I use APple Mail to read my mail instead of using GMail’s user interface not because the design looks better and feels better, but because I don’t like the fundamental way GMail works. I don’t like the everything-is-a-damn-conversation no-that’s-not-the-same-as-threading-honest design. But that interface is the most design-driven part of GMail.
And some people really really like it. Because design is subjective.
Wow, it’s like Bizarro World. We’re opposites! At least when it comes to Gmail.
Actually, what I like about Gmail is the tagging (or “Labels” — yes, Google has renamed more than they’ve reinvented) aspect and the fact that everything stays on Google’s servers. I don’t get why Apple Mail doesn’t have tags, but I’m unwilling to install 3rd party hacks to get them.
Yes, it’s true, the way things look is subjective. But Google’s pages are designed around unstyled HTML. Their style is a willful lack of style. It looks cheap and unconsidered (to me). I get the feeling Google designs by committee, by survey. I prefer something that looks a bit more polished, a bit more like there’s a human making it.
But more importantly, I don’t think Google holds design in high regard, and that if they did I think they could innovate even more than they already have. It’s not so much that their apps look bad — though I clearly think they do — but that Google could make them work better by looking more at design, among other things.
Personally, I’ve always had an affinity for the Thinkpads. When I was buying my Windows box I almost got one just for the look of it even though it cost significantly more. Most people I know agree that the Thinkpad is a nicely designed machine. Instead I got a Dell, which is just another example of cheap, flimsy, ugly design. Oh, I’m also a big, big fan of the Thinkpad nipple. And not just ’cause I was weaned too early. The nipple rocks!
I would argue that the Tandy was plastic and the MacBook Pro is whatever space-age metal Apple’s using these days, and that draws some sort of line somewhere. But, thank you very much, I’ll never look at my old-skool PowerBook quite the same way. I’m typing on her now, and looking at a picture of a TRS, and , yes, there’s definitely a similarity.
Next up: The brilliant design of the 1977 Tandy TRS-80.
-systemsboy
Funny. To me Google Mail looks like a human made it, and Apple Mail looks like it was designed by the same robots that make those cheap clock radios from Taiwan you see at Sears.
I like minimalism. Check my web page. Lynx enhanced. I edit my “blog” in raw HTML. But I draw the line at “Platinum”.
Right. Your web page says it all.
Cheers!
-systemsboy
I also think that gmail lacks good design and, I guess, that’s why the logo still says BETA
Today just happens to be Gmail’s 5th birthday. I think that’d make this the longest beta ever. Either way, that’s five years Google’s had to work on design.
But the fact that the software is beta is hardly a reason not to criticize it. In fact, the beta period is typically the time when developers ask for feedback. And something that sucks but is beta, is still something that sucks.
Anyway, that’s my two cents on the whole beta thing.
-systemsboy
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