[jaysonelliot]

The first thing I have to do when looking at a demo video like this is mute the music so I can actually look at the usability of the interface without the soundtrack trying to tug at my heartstrings.

I find it hard to tell if this is going to be a step in the right direction or not. There are some red flags that go up for me, but it's obviously hard to judge based on descriptions and videos alone.

One of the biggest UX problems with G+ today is the way it handles notifications and conversations. Every event gets a notification, to the point that I rarely see a Google page without some red number in the top right, usually indicating nothing more interesting than "{random user} has added you to their Circles." The signal-to-noise ratio for the notifications is so poor that I've developed notification blindness. I've subconsciously tuned it out, so if someone actually does have something to say to me, I miss it.

Conversations on G+ are also poorly handled today. Because so many things are handled in the notification overlay, they all have to live in a narrow band on the right that is very hard to process visually. Whether in an overlay or on Plus itself, conversations are difficult to follow with their collapsed views and lack of adequate visual cues for the reader's attention.

I'm intrigued by the "Conversation Cards" that are mentioned on the redesign announcement, but the fact that they don't warrant their own demo video leads me to suspect that Google hasn't considered the usability of their conversations to be a top priority.

One last red flag for me is the customizable "navigation ribbon." It's an adage in UX that when you see an interface that asks the user to customize the layout, it means the designers gave up trying to find the right solution themselves. I'm not saying it can never work, but it is a red flag for me here.

I hope the new G+ is a big step forward. I've been wanting to love Google Plus since it first arrived. At least they're devoted to G+, and they're staying hungry.

[RobAtticus]

Notifications are pretty easily turned down. I only see notifications for things I'm tagged in, or when I've replied to a post previously. Maybe I'm just unpopular but I don't find that I'm being overwhelmed with notifications.

The navigation ribbon reminds me of the OSX dock in how it works. I don't think they gave up on the right solution, but rather the right solution is to allow people to decide what's important to them.

[iconfinder]

"It's an adage in UX that when you see an interface that asks the user to customize the layout, it means the designers gave up trying to find the right solution themselves."

It's always depends on the app. If you have a tool where you primarily have heavy users e.g. a programmer's IDE - then customization makes sense. But in the case of Google+ I don't see the point either - it just adds extra complexity.

[logic]

Think a/b testing: if your users start customizing around a particular pattern (particularly in larger numbers), there might be something to learn from that.

[freehunter]

I agree that the conversations are difficult. When I click the notification window to see a reply, all I get is that one reply. I find it cumbersome to find the full conversation, to the point where I usually go to that person's page and find the original, eschewing the notifications altogether.

[jmillikin]

Click the reply in the notification list.

[haberman]

Can't you configure what gets delivered as a notification? If you're so popular that people are adding you to circles all the time, can't you just turn those notifications off?

[mbrubeck]

As far as I can tell, you can customize email and phone notifications, but you can't customize the notifications that appear under the red alert number on Google web pages. (I might be missing something.)

[neilk]

I like to think of the red alert number as my "score". The higher it gets the more I know I'm ignoring useless distractions.

[caffleine]

There's a "Who can send you notifications?" section on the settings page which allows you to configure who can send you notifications that trigger the red alert.

[acdha]

This does not actually work for being added to circles.

[nailer]

Try this instead: https://github.com/mikemaccana/japanese_mayonnaise

[acdha]

I'm becoming increasingly strict avoiding things like that: if Google doesn't care about wasting my attention, why help them by using their service?

[acdha]

For a few things, yes, but there's no way to disable the Google-wide badge or the iOS push notification badging.

I ended up deleting my Google+ account because that was the only way to avoid this constant badge spam.