[ck2]

I get the point that designers want to design and fiddle with everything like little children, constantly, regardless of how other people have actual work to do regardless of their playtime.

However constantly changing any user interface is a fantastic way to make customers furious when they can no longer find things and have to stop to adapt, over and over.

Why not allow the old look to function for years instead of weeks or months. There is no way you are going to convince me google doesn't have the resources to do that, it's not a massive internal change, it's a visual layer.

I really need to make a point to switch to Thunderbird and imap in 2012 - google is getting on my last nerve on every product they offer.

[timothya]

> However constantly changing any user interface is a fantastic way to make customers furious when they can no longer find things and have to stop to adapt, over and over.

Can you explain what you mean by "constantly changing"? It's clear that Google is going through a big visual refresh and rolling all of it's products over to one new unified design, but that's something that hasn't been done in a long time, it's not a constant state of significant change.

> Why not allow the old look to function for years instead of weeks or months. There is no way you are going to convince me google doesn't have the resources to do that, it's not a massive internal change, it's a visual layer.

Years is a long time for Google to have to hold onto old code and support both versions (as well as the mechanisms to allow the both to exist). And as you say, it's "just" a visual change, for most users it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt to. And I'm sure that if you had specific complaints about its usability, the team at Google working on this would be happy to hear from you.

[jrockway]

For every old user that hates the change, there are a million people who have never used gmail before and will like it when they switch. Why should progress be held back because you can't adapt?

(I don't really like Google's new style either, but it doesn't really upset me or damage my experience in any way.)

[megablast]

Unlikely. People don't use gmail because of the user interface, they use it because they are locked in with their email address. New users will pick what they have heard off, or what their friends use.

[kleiba]

Tons of people started using gmail exactly because of the user interface.

For your second point, if you really mean "locked in" (as in "my company has outsourced their email to gmail") you can always use an IMAP client.

But I guess this is just a small typo and you mean "logged in" - in which case I'm not sure I can follow? Is your point that people don't like the user interface but use it anyway because their friends use it?! Not sure I buy. If no-one forces you to use gmail, don't use it. Or, again, use an IMAP client.

[rhnoble]

Not to mention keyboard shortcuts! Navigating with my keyboard seriously saves me tons of time everyday.

[kellishaver]

Also very handy for users who can't see the mouse well or rely on a screen reader.

[jwdunne]

I don't think I fully understand what you mean by locked in either. I'm assuming one meaning here:

There are a number of ways you can switch email addresses. You can set up a forwarder from the gmail address to wherever you want--over time this should rectify itself and in the case it doesn't, you're not really losing out on anything. Receive via Gmail, respond via your new email.

I used to use Gmail for the interface. When I received my invite, I'd never experienced anything like that in the browser. It was refreshing, cool and it worked extremely well. I'm not 'locked' into those addresses in any sense of the word and never have been.

[megablast]

No, I meant locked in. Hey, I enjoy the gmail UI as well, but most of my non-tech friends do not care. This is all I was saying.

And yes, I mean locked in, because if everybody knows you at [e-mail], or [e-mail], you can just move to gmail easily. Sure, you can setup forwarders, email everyone, but this is a non trivial step for most people. I am confused why people here can not see this.

[jwdunne]

I'm pretty certain the UI does matter to more than you make out. I just don't think they know how to express it. From what I've seen, getting the UI right is half the battle--look at MySpace vs Facebook.

Though I am certainly seeing where you're coming from with second part. It is a hassle that I don't think most would embark upon. I don't know but it seems switching emails could be a problem that needs solving. There certainly are ways I can think of that would make this easier.

[mise]

I wonder why can't interface design be more granular, taking many little steps to transform from one look to another over months and years?

We don't know when someone is aging from day to day, but if we see them year to year then we can see the change.

[Raphael]

It has been gradually changing. At some point I suddenly could not find Contacts. Turns out it was hidden under Mail.