Thursday, March 1, 2012

Google UI designers gone wild; or, how to create a filter in new Gmail

So, I'm not a huge fan of Google's recent feats of web design. In particular, in Reader, they took one of the best webapps around and made it basically unusable. But that's a story for another rant-y blog post. Today I'd like to talk about creating a filter in GMail.

This used to be quite simple; there was a link for it. Now… Well, I'll let you guess from the image (and what you need to do it is in this image):

Screen Shot 2012 03 01 at 22 48 51

 

What's that arrow beside the search box for? Why, it must be a combo box! How very retro! Remember combo boxes? Sadly, they never really joined us in earnest in the 21st century, and certainly they haven't made it into this decade:

 

ComboBoxCS demo

 

Well, no, actually, it is not a combo box. It is, er, this:

 

Screen Shot 2012 03 01 at 22 49 05

 

Yes, when you click it, you get a sort of drop-down pseudo-modal form. I propose that we call this fabulous new user interface paradigm 'the Google', and use it everywhere. Or possibly just call for an international moratorium on it.

 

1 comment:

  1. Oh, normally I create filters direct from the offending email. Open email, click more button, create filter of emails like this. Unless it changed more recently than last week...

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