Re:GMail: designer arrogance and the cult of minimalism
by falling on Friday April 27, 2012 @12:51PM
(#3899937)
> With respect to GMail, when people like pg who get the big picture are saying that the UI sucks, it probably sucks.
this very website proves that that is not necessarily true.
Re:GMail: designer arrogance and the cult of minimalism
by ericd on Friday April 27, 2012 @07:02PM
(#3901407)
This website's UI is not the prettiest, but it's extremely intuitive and functional. That's much more important in most cases.
Re:GMail: designer arrogance and the cult of minimalism
by falling on Friday April 27, 2012 @08:45PM
(#3901650)
Agreed of course, and actually I don’t mind the look.
The problems are: small unreadable font, small controls/buttons, content too wide to read comfortably, doesn’t correctly support mobile, links that rely on cookies that expire (what is this? 1998?).
OS X Finder UI is a mess anyway, so changes that make it easier for non-technical folk are probably net positives.
I don't have a good public example in mind, but the users at my employer often flip with volcanic rage when applications are changed -- even godawful VB5 legacy apps. Usually you can discern the "I hate change, and am typing up a memo of complaint" arguments versus "you made things worse" arguments based on who is complaining.
With respect to GMail, when people like pg who get the big picture are saying that the UI sucks, it probably sucks.