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Ask HN: Why is Gmail trying to change its UI?

6 pointsby softwaremanover 6 years ago
How many are still on the old classic gmail UI and how many are on new one? Also, is anybody using inbox.google.com?

12 comments

CM30over 6 years ago
Probably fashion more than anything else. Feels like it&#x27;s trying for the &#x27;flat&#x27; design aesthetic that&#x27;s become the norm online nowadays.<p>And I suspect that design was made to appeal to more &#x27;casual&#x27; users, with the assumption being that a more minimalistic look would be more appealing&#x2F;popular&#x2F;usable for them.<p>But it&#x27;s not really working. Based on people I&#x27;ve spoken to, many seem to despise the new design and almost everyone I&#x27;ve asked wanted to switch back to the classic version. That&#x27;s not about techies either, it&#x27;s more casual and often older users that seem annoyed by the new design too.
ioddlyover 6 years ago
I switched because I figured they&#x27;d turn the old one off eventually and I might as well get used to it. No issues on my end, and I&#x27;m not sure if it was there before but there&#x27;s an option to make composing new emails take up most of the screen rather than the tiny popout, which I like.<p>Guess I&#x27;m not much of an advanced email user though, I use probably 3 other mail apps for various accounts and don&#x27;t take advantage of any other features.
jpindarover 6 years ago
Because they can? The department that runs Gmail has to justify their budget I suppose.
lastofitover 6 years ago
The screen looks messy to me. I really don&#x27;t care&#x2F;want to see the attached files. It reminds me of stack of old books on a shelf with pages spilling out.
PeOeover 6 years ago
I think it&#x27;s just to get some news. The longer you are on the market the older you&#x27;re UI gets. To go along with trends and to stay up to date you need changes. I actually try the new UI and it just looks a bit more modern but that&#x27;s it. But the people talk about it so it works ;)
miguelrochefortover 6 years ago
I&#x27;ve been using Inbox for years.<p>It&#x27;s a much better workflow.<p>I wish I was able to archive&#x2F;snooze <i>everything</i> in <i>every</i> app.
dangerfaceover 6 years ago
I hated their old UI, another one of those one page apps that doesn&#x27;t work like the rest of the internet. The new one is better but again one of those one page apps that doesn&#x27;t work like the rest of the net.
davchanaover 6 years ago
I switched because ultimately I will be forced to use it, so better start using it now. I use the compact setting, &amp; same in earlier one was really compact; but in new it still has lots of white space, so use the 90% zoomed out version of new one.
fusionchover 6 years ago
Many Google products are changing UI these days. YouTube, Search Console. They&#x27;re updating all to have a similar UI I guess.
phakdingover 6 years ago
I hardly ever login to Gmail, as I pull emails over imap. But I switched long time ago because I am always excited to use the new UI.
deepaksurtiover 6 years ago
When you can no longer innovate, change UI!
k0t0n0over 6 years ago
I switched to new UI its nothing compared to what valve did for cs go.