Gmail UX design review : 19 issues.

Let’s be honest… Who had a wow effect with this last Gmail interface ?

It seems that some basic principles in usability field have been forgotten.

Did google perform some user testing or a design review ? The purpose of this article is to give a small design review.

Design review

Here I list some of the basic bug in usability. I use the “Bastien Scapin” criteria to explain them and refer them with EC1–8.

• EC1: Guidance,
• EC2: Workload,
• EC3: Explicit control,
• EC4: Adaptability
• EC5: Error Management
• EC6: Consistency
• EC7: Signifiance of code
• EC8: Compatibility

1. Do not change user habit except if there is major usability innovation or wow effect. (EC8)
2. Maximize the work space. The space dedicated to show the mail list is smaller than before. People see less mails. (EC3)
3. The compose button has a weird shape, not really paper design. It is not colored as before and therefore does not show the nominal process which is to write a new email. (EC3)
4. The hamburger menu has a weird behavior. User would expect it show a menu. In fact, it will remove text from button. (EC8)
5. Gestalt problem (proximity law) between the hamburger menu and the Gmail logo. The space between the Gmail logo and the hamburger menu is smaller than the Gmail logo and “Gmail” label. (EC2)
6. Using mouseover for menu facilitate motor mistakes (Bastien Scapin (EC3). It is better to remove all hover action.
7. The label menu button are all identical. Why show a lot of identical pictograms ? (EC2-EC3)
8. The search box and button are not visually consistent : one is with rounded border and the other one is rectangular. (EC6)
9. The upper left corner considerably lacks of consistency. There are too much different things to understand for a normal user (EC6).

10. The “Unread” section, when empty takes a lot of space to say nothing, and thus reduces the user work space (listing the email) (EC3).

11. The distance between the “three dots” button and the section label are too far (Fitts law) : when the user gets the focus on the Unread label, it has to do a big move to go to the “three dots” button in order to perform action on it. (EC3)

12. When clicking on the “1–50 of 28257” label, the layout changes and the label get to another place on the screen… (EC3)

13. There is too much buttons visible on this interface at a time. It looks like an airplane board. (EC3)

14. The tooltips take time to appears and to remove themselves and thus disturb users. They delay actions taken from the users and perturb his mind(EC3)

15. Untimely animations : animation when the mouse go over some action buttons. It delays the user action. Gmail is a “work” tool, not a game. (EC3)

16. Square button and rounded button in the same menu (EC6)

17. When selecting a email, there is a rounded surface around the checkbox. The signification of this is not understood. In minimalist design, people says “form follows function”. What is the purpose of this rounded gray surface ?(EC3)

18. The compact view is not compact enough. The padding is still too much high compared to the good old interface. The work space is therefore reduced instead of being maximized. (EC3)

19. Splash screen of Gmail, too much disturbing. It looks like an explosion. Do users want to have an explosion feeling each time they go on Gmail ? (EC8)

Conclusion

Even big companies make usability common basic errors. If they do more user testing or expert design review, they should fix them. It is an organizational challenge.