With Gmail, why develop inbox?

A few years ago, Google's Gmail team decided to start developing a separate email application, the recently released Inbox, a "Gmail" with a significant design change. Like all Google products, it is tested in-house before it is officially launched, allowing Google's own employees to understand all the new features, in addition to the redesigned interface, to the most advanced features.

After the initial internal test, the Gmail team did not wait for a long time to get feedback. The new version of "Gmail" caused a stir, the company generated a lot of objections, and the Gmail team on the product/design decisions have been questioned. "You [the Gmail team] completely destroyed the gmail!," he said. "and" What are these crazy designers doing?! ”。

Google's engineers are a bunch of people with typical obsessive-compulsive disorder, they wrote long posts to stop the Gmail team's decision and posted them in internal Google + and forums, detailing the reasons why every change in the application should not be changed, no matter how obscure.

In response, the head of the Gmail design team made a statement titled "You are not a user," a statement that is currently available in internal Google + to view the archived version.

In the statement, the person in charge details the reasons behind the decision of each design/product team, and they decided to remove these advanced features by finding that the vast majority of Gmail users had never used advanced features. Most people just want a simple email client, so they don't need those complex user interfaces.

All of the team's decisions revolve around the central fact that they find that an average Gmail user receives about 5 e-mails a day, most of them promotional-type emails that don't need to be answered. In contrast, an average Google employee receives about 450 e-mails a day, many of which are important, and they need to read and reply to these emails.

Although the Gmail design/product team provided a lot of concrete data to support their decision, the statement did not quell criticism. Many technicians say they use a variety of advanced features to handle everyday emails.

Finally, they reached a compromise. Gmail will maintain a high rate of refinement for its huge user base (hundreds of millions of months of active users), while preserving the functionality for those who really need advanced functionality.
At the same time, the Gmail team began to develop a separate product specifically designed for advanced users who would handle a large number of emails a day. This is the story of how Inbox was born.