Reasons why Google+ is interesting UI | Hacker News Reader

Reasons why Google+ is interesting UI

bokardo.com

39 pointsjoshuacc17 comments

In case anyone else is having a hard time reading this cause the site is bogged down:

The Google+ launch has been very positive for Google so far. I think it’s interesting from a UI standpoint for several reasons:

1. It puts Google on the design map. 2. Part of a bigger redesign. 3. Andy Hertfeld is lead Designer. 4. Increasing rivalry with Facebook. 5. Strong win for UX Research

Here's the cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

I hope to see the same kind of polished and clean look and feel arrive to Android 4.0.

The design looks nice, clean and simple, but it isn't very functional. In that respect, I would consider it a failure. If a layman like me can find glaring weaknesses, why can't the people working on it do so? Budget, deadline or incompetence?

The only one I can remotely justify is deadline since the client is Google (infinite money, needs social bad, supposedly lots of smart people), but since a redesign is so much work, wouldn't you expect them want to get it right the first time?

Do you think maybe you could explain why it isn't functional?

In the new Gmail there is a huge amount of unused space, even in the "Dense" view. This results in less emails on the screen at one time in the Inbox (I use Priority Inbox so maybe it works great in regular mode, but it should work in both). The might have been trying to avoid information overload but they achieved information underload.

Now the compose and search buttons are enormous and the only colored elements on the page. Eyes are drawn to them in a way that each competes for attention and eventually you end up at the Gmail logo. Great for Google branding(? I already use Gmail), not so good for me because it hurts my eyes and distracts me.

Next, with everything being white with a few grey highlights, it is unclear where each section of the page begins and ends. Some things start to scroll while others stay static with no indication of what will change. The browser scrollbar takes up the whole size of the browser window but only part of the screen scrolls some of the time.

Just a few of the issues I had.

The article is about Google+ not GMail. Although, admittedly, they are related, I feel that you've accidentally compared apples and oranges.

Well it did mentioned that "'Design' is now at Google" and the designs are being unified. All Google products are being +ified.

Andy Hertfeld is lead Designer

I believe his last name is Hertzfeld.

Will definitely read when the site is back to normal, i like Joshua Porter's stuff. The article by the ex Wave developer on HN is a good read in the mean time.

Hacker News has become an unpaid arm of Google's marketing department. Mainstream users don't care about Google+, if they've even heard of it.

Does PG hold GOOG shares?

As far as I've seen he hasn't been posting any of these Google+ articles.

I was kidding.

Perhaps. But we obviously do care about it, for whatever reason.

If you're looking for media that cater to people in the mainstream, there's always USA Today and Reader's Digest.

"Mainstream users don't care about Google+, if they've even heard of it."

that would probably come as a bit of a shock to my 40+ muggle friends on google+.

This is Hacker News, and you're upset that it has hacker-oriented news?

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