gooey

azspot:

In the name of visual consistency, Google has updated the visual style to match Gmail, Calendar and Docs. I have nothing against visual consistency (and in fact, this something that Google should be doing), but it’s as if whoever made the update did so without ever actually using the product to, you know, read something.

When you log into Reader, what the hell do you think your primary objective is? Did you answer “stare at a giant header bar with no real estate saved for actual reading”? Congrats, here’s your prize:

(thanks, Kristina for the image)

Reader is a product built to consume information, quickly. We designed it to be very good at that one thing. G+ is an experience built around browsing (similar to Facebook) and socializing. Taking the UI paradigm for G+ and mashing it onto Reader without any apparent regard for the underlying function is awful and it shows.

The second and more obvious change, is that someone took the magic color-removing wand and drenched the whole page in grey. It’s so unbelievably stark, it’s hard to imagine a more desolate experience. Even G+ has blue links for post titles. Blue titles are good enough for Google search. Reader, which is built _entirely around posts with title_s, does away with this in the name of the almighty grey god.

Google web page presentation used to be all about the data, simplicity in design with little in the way of unwarranted ornamental frills. I can become accommodated to the double spacing of entries, but this irksome practice of excessively sized header frames needs to be deep-sixed. I thought the web consuming community already voted overwhelming against the practice of framing. Google+ has the same annoying feature, and it really constrains my usage of what is many other respects a quality product. Google mobile offerings, too, are also an embarrassment. Font sizes entirely too small (at least for my 40something eyes) and views totally un-tailored for smaller screen sizes. Or plagued with dynamic content insertion that makes the page rendering hop and skip, in aneurism inducing fashion.

A tip though for those who might not be aware but you can go “full screen” still on the Google Reader experience by tapping ‘F’.

It looks like most of the core functionality of Google Reader is still intact. I know there has been a lot of consternation over removal of social sharing features but I never used those (except for the “Send to…” options for which you can even customize) and thought them as pointless exercises, especially considering there is still not an “official” API for the product.

Furthermore, the product appears to have taken a step backward in the efficiency, performance, and responsiveness. And the big reason why I adopted Google Reader — Google’s raison d’être, it’s powerful search capability, seems to be weltering. It could be just some kinks in rolling out a new code base, and just a momentary flux.