SAN JOSE, California—Google Inc. has been described as functional, powerful, scary, speedy and fun. But beautiful? Hardly ever.
New
CEO Larry Page is trying to change all that, cribbing a note from one
of his business role models and competitors, the late Steve Jobs and
Apple Inc. Almost immediately after becoming CEO in April, Page ordered a
redesign of Google’s online properties, attempting to create a unified
look and feel that would proclaim “Google,” just as the aesthetic
character of Apple products renders them instantly recognizable. The
universal redesign is the first in the company’s 13-year history.
Google’s
new, less-cluttered look debuted with the Google+ social network at the
end of June, and is now being phased in to Gmail, Calendar, Documents,
Search and other Google sites across the company’s online empire. While
Google’s plans for a wholesale face-lift were overshadowed by the hubbub
over the launch of Google+, Page months before had set in motion a
crash program by the company’s user interface (UI) designers to remake
the face of Google.
“Larry
likes things done fast, so he was like, ‘Hey guys, can we completely
transform Google’s look and feel by the summer?’” said Jon Wiley, the
company’s lead user experience designer for search. “As designers, we
kind of felt like we were the dog that had caught the car.”
With
its geeky, data-driven identity, Google has rarely been lauded for its
aesthetics. But with consumers flocking to Apple’s iPhones and iPads,
and with Facebook launching new products that emphasize look and feel as
well as functionality, Google and other Internet companies are
increasingly focused on appearance, as well as how they work.
“It’s really clear that consumers care about [design] now,” said Khoi Vinh, former design director for The New York Times web
site, who is working on a startup connected to the iPad. “In an earlier
age when tech was still rough and immature, you could win on technology
alone. But now, tech is mature enough that people really value and look
for the best possible design. It’s why Apple sold 4 million iPhone
4S’s” its first weekend on sale.
Interactive
design students in programs like New York’s School of Visual Arts have
become targets for Silicon Valley recruiters, with companies like Apple,
Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and Google making job offers to recent
graduates, said Liz Danzico, chairman of the school’s MFA interactive
design program
Her students are in demand because tech companies are realizing that design “can be a differentiator for users,” Danzico said.
Facebook
made waves in design circles in April when it bought Daytum, a startup
for collecting personal statistics and sharing them through striking
digital graphics, bringing its principals Nicholas Felton and Ryan Case
to Silicon Valley from New York to work on its upcoming Timeline
feature. Facebook touted the acquisition at its annual developer
conference this year, and Vinh said other tech startups, like Groupon,
Airbnb and Pinterest have raised the bar for online aesthetics.
Page
“cares passionately about great design,” and believes a common “design
language” could unify Google’s array of online products, Wiley said.
Google has launched its new look and feel for its popular Gmail product.
The
redesign includes new shapes for buttons; the hiding of many controls
until they’re needed, resulting in a cleaner look; consistency of
appearance across desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones;
and a “color language” where bolder reds, blues and greens all have
specific meanings. Even the search homepage—a product whose aesthetic
minimalism has been praised in the past—got a revamp, with a smaller
Google logo.
Google’s
face-lift has drawn praise from design experts, although the consensus
remains that the company hasn’t matched Apple. On his blog, Vinh called
the update “less beholden to the brutally analytical decision-making
that has guided Google product design and aesthetics in the past.”
In
an interview, he called the Google redesign changes “competent,” and
“professional,” but said there was room for improvement: “I don’t think
any of them are as much of a ‘wow’ moment as what you would get from
Apple, which is one of their main competitors.”
Page
tried to drum up some attention recently, bringing up the changes
during Google’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts, as he
talked about how Google+ is intended to be a model for the rest of
Google.
“Our
ultimate ambition is to transform the overall Google experience, making
it beautifully simple, almost automagical, as we understand what you
want and can deliver it instantly,” Page said.
“Think
about it this way: Last quarter, we shipped the ‘+,’ and now we’re
going to ship the Google part,” Page told analysts. “The new visual
design—beautiful, consistent UIs for Search, News, Maps, Translate and
lots of other features—is only the beginning of that process.”
Wiley, a former improvisational comedian who once hoped for a career on Saturday Night Live before discovering the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, said removing “clutter” is one of the biggest thrusts for the redesign.
Google
has always been colorful, he said, but its use of color has not always
been effective. Color “is additional information for the eye; it creates
a lot of visual information. That can start to actually get in the way
of the content. What we wanted to do was be sure there was a focus on
the content.”
In
the new Google design, a bolder red is a cue the user is about to
create something, such as a new spreadsheet. Blue is the color of
action, meaning “do it; go for it; make it happen,” Wiley said. Green is
the color of sharing.
There
are fewer visible controls. In Google Docs, for example, the buttons to
organize or delete a spreadsheet are hidden until you click on the
file. And the buttons are designed to work for touch screens as well as
mouse-driven clicks.
Wiley said the personality and culture of a company should translate into the feel and function of its products.
“Yeah,
we are creating a language for Google,” he said. “We are trying to tell
a story with the design that is reflective of Google’s character and
personality, the things that make Google, Google. It’s kind of hard to
describe in words.”
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