What can we learn from Google's new UI

The most notable change in the 2011 site was Google, which enabled a new user interface. This article will explore the thinking process behind the Google user interface design, and perhaps we can learn from the methods and design principles that are worth learning from.

Google user interface reform process

1998

Google Original homepage

2012

Updated interface

"Google's mission is to integrate global information so that everyone can access it and benefit from it." ”

Unified Google Experience

Google's Web pages have changed radically since the beginning of the period. The user's web experience has more access than ever before and can be viewed and felt on different devices. Google has made changes to reflect these changes. Changes are also cited to unify Google's range of products, integrating these products, allowing users to have a seamless experience between product transitions. Google's explanation is:

"Our goal is to bring you a more seamless and consistent online experience that will be available to you regardless of which Google product you use or what device you are using." ”

The new experience Google brings is based on three key design principles. Let's take a look at these three principles. Yixieshi

focus--Focus on Sex

Focus is the task or work that allows users to focus on the tasks they want to solve quickly and easily. Clean up clutter and keep the user's focus and common tools in front of you. At the same time, add some simple things, such as the use of bright colors to highlight or hide unused navigation features.

Through these methods, Google's user interface can help users subconsciously focus on what they are trying to accomplish and ease the user's failure experience.

elasticity--flexibility

The biggest change since Google began to change was the way its users visited the Web.

Not only on desktop computers, but also on mobile devices, such as smartphones, high-resolution tablets and televisions. The purpose of "flexibility" is to allow users to maintain a consistent visual experience when switching to different devices.

effortless--Ease of Use

Although the technologies and products Google uses are rather complex, they do not want to portray this complexity in their design. The idea of "ease of use" is to keep the product simple, clean and consistent.

"Google's new brand will be rooted in trust, beauty, technology and innovation." "--larry Page

Google navigation bar

The center of Google's redesign is its new Google Bar (navigation bar), which replaces the original "hard and Black" navigation bar at the top of the screen. Google realizes that this thing occupies a valuable position on our screen, so we decide to give it new design principles and new features.

The new menu bar incorporates Google's navigation bar, the search bar, and the Google + toolbar. All the product features in the search bar and navigation bar are preserved, and there is a simple switch between the products. Simply scrolling through Google's logo, a pull-down menu appears, and users can easily switch between Gmail, Docs, Maps, YouTube, and other products.

Eddie Kessler, Google's technology director, explains:

"Unified, simplified, farewell to the old navigation bar!" Let users enjoy the super simple navigation experience, is to change Google's overall browsing experience is an important part of the direction of our efforts. This is why we are extremely excited about this revision. ”

Google +

Left: The Google+logo right: Google + 's menu and interface, designed by Alex Alex Patrascu

In order to analyze the UI of each Google product to achieve its full effect, in this article I will select several of the most prominent Google star products to elaborate.