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Comment by eiieirurjdndjd | Hacker News Reader

Same. I’m actually at google but I’m not going to tell the gmail team about this post because

1. I don’t agree with it, and

2. Gmail team is already painfully aware that any given change will be unappealing to a subset of users.

3. They are probably already here, taking note, considering.

Unfortunately we can’t all have a custom UI written exactly to our specifications. Gmail team has to try to do what they think is best for most users. For the rest, there are various gmail UI tweak extensions for Chrome and Firefox, or you can write your own userscript or use an IMAP client.

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> Unfortunately we can’t all have a custom UI written exactly to our specifications.

This isn't what most people are asking for though, they just want Google to not make the UX worse. Increasing the page load time and making a bunch of styling changes for no appreciable benefit makes the app worse, not better. If a lot of people are wishing the dev team had just done nothing, it's probably a sign that the changes aren't warranted.

> Gmail team has to try to do what they think is best for most users.

I would love if Gmail team went forward and shared a bit about how they get data on what's best for most users. This would probably alleviate many complaints, by letting complainers (like me) know how dissimilar they are to majority of users.

> For the rest, there are various gmail UI tweak extensions for Chrome and Firefox,

Given the state of browser extension market, this is inviting users to selfpwn.

> or you can write your own userscript

Isn't this against the TOS? Even if it isn't, this solves the problem only for couple frustrated users with enough knowledge and too much time on their hands.

> or use an IMAP client.

Fortunately, yes, for now. I hope Google doesn't decide to abandon IMAP.

There is absolutely, 100%, without qualification, no circumstance whatsoever where a regression is good for most users.

The fact that you think so makes it hard to take anything else you've said seriously.

Do you mean that this change is a regression for most users? In which case do you have data to back that up?

Or do you mean that a change which regresses for a small number of users while improving for most is bad? In which case this is not correct and I'm happy to elaborate on why.

IMHO, you can never win the UI war, because habits.

If they improve the speed and make it work as fast as the previous version did, I think most users will learn to live with the new UI.

At which time they'll randomly change it again.

Outlook.com seem to have been making UI changes that haven't irked people.

Because no one uses it.

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