- November 16, 2010 12:37 pm
Eagle-eyed Gmail users may have noticed some slightly different paint over the last few days as Google rolled out an updated Gmail Login page and Logo. The updates aren’t anything highly noticeable. Heck, I even missed them at first glance. But once you comb over the page a bit more carefully, you can see subtle changes to things such as the “Glass-like” gradient in the Gmail logo as well as certain borders and boxes disappearing around text. Overall, it brings a slightly cleaner look to Gmail.
However, Gmail wasn’t the only Google service to get a face lift. The Gmail About Page and “What’s New” pages also received some minor TLC.
The California based company didn’t give any clear indications as to why they felt Gmail needed the updating. Though Google Product Marketing Manager Jason Toff had the following to say:
“Our goal was to keep a familiar look while freshening up the graphics and trimming down the text (we cut out over 250 words in the process). “
Fair enough. What do you guys think? Personally, I think the new logo looks a bit too PlaySkool. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder I ‘spose. (More images after the break…)
Last week we highlighted a post from TechCrunch that foreshadowed a Facebook redesign being rolled out following their keynote. Well, the new design didn’t happen. Instead, Facebook talked about “lockdown” — their sudo code word for long hours — and how new features and a redesign would be slowly launched over the coming weeks and months. Apparently their “weeks to months” means “a few days”. I fired up my Facebook a little bit ago and was greeted with the picture you see here — the chat box is no longer a list of people with tiny thumbnails. Now it’s just a bunch of tiny thumbnails. As far as looks go, I prefer the images to lists of names. But I realize it won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea. Looks like the fruits of “lockdown” are already starting to trickle out.
What do you guys think? Better or worse?
- September 14, 2010 8:04 pm
The wait is over folks. For all five of your reading out there, the micro-blogging/social networking site Twitter has let loose it’s new look upon the world. You’ll immediately notice that things look very, very different. To my eyes, it’s leaps and bounds better than the old interface. It manages to look more sophisticated and yet simple.
Physical looks aside, the new design features a never-ending update stream — Yay, no more “click more” crap!! — as well as a second panel on the right that shows trending topics, Twitter user specs, and so on. Though if you ask me, the coolest part of the redesign is that photos and videos open in the right panel, meaning you don’t have to click through to random places on the interwebs to get what you want. Nice! Personally, I’m really liking the new look and can’t wait ’til my accounts get access to it. What your thoughts and feelings? Are you as equally impressed or is it time for pitchforks, dragons, and fire? If you fall into the latter, you’ve only got a few days to a week left. While Twitter says it won’t be available to everyone right away (again, starting only with select users), they don’t offer up any date as to which the rollout will be complete. Guess they can’t fail to meet a deadline if there isn’t one to begin with, huh?
Hop inside for a couple more pics…**Update: Video added after the jump too.
Since Twitter’s inception, the main profile page hasn’t really changed. Conversely, other aspects of the popular micro-blogging site like the login page have. On top of physical looks, numerous actual features have been added, with the more recent (and prominent) one being geo-tagging.
A new posting on Dribble by Twitter’s lead designer, Doug Bowman, shows what is a fairly revamped UI — and a nice one at that I will add. It has that typical Mac-like styling I think. You know, the muted colors, matte finish, and rounded, soft on the eyes corners free from harsh jagged edges. I think it looks awesome.
Any official announcements as to a global rollout are no closer to us than Pluto is to being reclassified as a planet. *sigh* Don’t fret. It gives us something to look forward to.
Along with the revamped UI, Twitter is also hard at work upping the feature set. It’s no secret that they are challenging 3rd party Twitter app developers as the founders want Twitter.com to be the defacto standard, doing away with the need for individual desktop clients. Anyway you look at it, a great web portal is universal and carries over to any platform or OS unlike dedicated apps.
Needless to say, the next 12-18 months for Twitter will be some of the most interesting yet for the company and end users alike — 3rd party developers, perhaps not so much.
What are your thoughts on the new direction the styling and the company overall is going?
Switched > AlleyInsider > Mashable
Eye candy isn’t at the top of everyone’s priority list as a pretty product that is shallow feature/spec wise is hardly worth looking at anyway. However, when a company pulls off a feat of funcitonality and beauty, one can’t help but to stand back and marvel at the fatasticness their eyes are taking in. T-Mobile has managed to do just that with the the refresh of their online account management portal while keeping everything nice, clean, and functional. Pictures are worth way more than words. So, you’ll have to make do with the picture above if you don’t have a T-Mobile account. You satisfied.
Source: BG
