Few days ago, they rolled out a redesigned Google search for everyone and launched their social gig – Google Plus on an invite only basis. Previously, we reported time and again that Google is heavily experimenting with the design and overall usability of search result pages. They removed the I am feeling lucky button, added a black navigation menu bar and introduced quite a few search enhancements for more meaningful results.
Now it’s Gmail’s turn.
Google is rolling out a complete redesign of Gmail in phases and here is how your redesigned Gmail inbox is supposed to look like:
Gmail’s new design aims to gift you a clutter free inbox, more white space between labels, items, individual messages and tries to soothe your eye with bold colors. Red, Blue, Grey, Black…maybe Green and Indigo are next.
If you are still on the older UI and want to test Gmail’s upcoming redesigned interface, follow these steps:
1. Click the “Settings” icon at the right top corner of Gmail inbox and choose “Mail Settings”
2. In the “Settings” page, switch to the “Themes” tab, scroll down and activate the “Preview” theme for Gmail. There are two versions: light and dense.
The dense version will give you a compact Gmail inbox with less spacing between different items. If you get tons of email every single day, the dense version will be ideally suited as you will have to scroll a little lesser. However, if you want to get rid of the clutter and want a clean layout – go for the light one.
Gmail says in a blog post that Google wants to provide a unified experience across all Google services. Whether you are using Google search, Google Reader, Google Plus or Gmail – you will see the same design and colors, once the design roll out is pushed globally.
Personally, I am not a fan of “bold” colors and I think they distract me a little. But it’s just a matter of time when my eyes gets used to the new Gmail design and I will start loving it anyway.
Note: In order to get Gmail’s redesigned inbox, it is not mandatory to have a Google Plus account. Some users have this confusion that the redesigned Gmail interface is only available to users who have signed up for Google Plus. It’s not true and Google apps users can also test the new dense and light themes of Gmail.
Now considering the fact that Google is rolling out it’s new design across all Google services one by one, how would Google Reader look like in the coming days? One user created a pretty similar mockup of Google Reader here
Who’s next? YouTube?
After Google Search, Gmail Joins The Redesign Club Via
