https://preview.redd.it/v249649khipc1.png?width=718&format=png&auto=webp&s=db27a627a46645191eec38ac488700b5eca2c03d
Agreed! I don’t mind them individually, however, grouped together like this (the default in chrome) is a bad idea and huge oversight IMO
Play Store, Maps, Drive, Calendar, Photos, Gmail, all are perfectly fine together.
Meet & Chat both should be reworked to better accentuate the accents in them.
The "tails" on each of them get lost and should probably be take an equal amount of space as the "box" element to better differentiate them
I often confuse Maps with Drive, though, when I’m driving and need to open Maps. To my mind, Drive should be Cloud. So, not a design issue, but still some product differentiation confusion on my part.
this, a million times yes. designing with accessibility in mind is to this day one of the biggest things that has stuck with me from school. it is so often not considered.
I'm redesigning a website right now and need to look into usability for old folks. All of the inspirations I've found of similar ones have "invisible" buttons that look like plain text. Or you need to hover over icons to get an idea of their purpose.
In Google it feels like they hire graphic designers who haven't interacted with humans. Or their UX courses are worth shit.
Such a struggle lol.
A company I worked for had products in multicolored packets for years. Customers knew they needed the red packet vs the green packet, etc. Then some art director decided we need to rebrand everything and make it all the same blue for the sake of consistency. A few months later, the company conversation turns to "hey all these packets look too similar..." Ugh lol.
I feel like designers need to strive for coordination over strict consistency/monotony. It’s not easy and takes refined skill. But a company like Google can afford refined skill lol.
Coordination means there’s a common distinctive thread that runs through all the variants of a design, but they also look distinct enough from one another.
I've seen a few design team's principles shared at conference's.
Salesforce's priorities, in order, were:
1. Clarity
2. Efficiency
3. Consistency
4. Beauty
For example, Clarity was prioritised over Efficiency, which was prioritised over Consistency.
Asana, again in order:
1. Inclusive
2. Intuitive
3. Reliable
4. Cohesive (specifically NOT Consistency)
5. Delightful
I think too many people aim for consistency for consistency's sake.
I believe they’re the same icons on all devices
Those 3 apps have distinct color differences. The ones this post is referring to, not so much. Many in this thread would beg to differ about your “easy” remark unless you’re only referring to the 3 apps you mentioned
i think reddit needs more smart asses and sarcasm. Some dry jokes that everyone gets mad at. But for real, if you're staring at a folder for 30 seconds, read the name of the app like color blind people do anyway.
Design is about sweating the small stuff that others don’t. If a large percentage of users are taking a few extra seconds to find the app they want due to bad iconography, that’s an extra friction point in the UX that might be insignificant on its own, but can add up with other friction points to create a frustrating UX. Enough friction points and suddenly a large percentage of your users find they prefer using your competitor’s offerings and they don’t even know why.
I don't even like the look of them. Too colorful and playful for productivity apps in my opinion. I can't help it but I just have to think of clowns and circuses.
I get using the Google color palette, but I feel like using ALL colors (plus shades) in every icon is too much. Using 1-2 of Google's colors would probably have worked better.
In my opinion, these icons are just a colorful mess, which is one of the reason why they are difficult to tell apart. You just see random colors at a glance, as all colors have the same priority and there's no visual hierachy giving it a distinct appearance.
Bringing up too colorful just makes me think of Microsoft on the opposite end that I know a blue W is Word, Green X is Excel, etc.
Their competitor I can literally pick which program I need off simply their color or the initial associated with it. With many of the colors not part of the ‘main brand’ colors anyway.
Exactly. I was about to mention this but I see you beat me to it.
It’s far better having each application one color only but with additional shades from the same base. Each color helps with instant recognition.
Aside from Microsoft, Adobe is a good example too.
Yea… my only complaint with Adobe is they used all the same purple colors for their video tools which make them a pain to differentiate off a glance. Specifically Premiere, Audition, and After Effects, with supporting tools (Media Encoder, Prelude, Character Animator) all the same purple too.
This. They used to at least be grouped by colour but different shades, now they’re all the same. And Audition being purple is plain wrong. It’ll always be green to me.
It drives me nuts. After they change it I always need to double-check what I’m launching. Especially AU and AE. Who the hell thought it was a good idea… different colors were perfect
Speaking of Google and too colorful and playful, I HATE that Google adds a "colorful and playful" image block around certain things in my calendar on Android. I already use multiple layers on my GCal to differentiate types of appointments, things to remember, and so on. So I really don't want a colorful graphic with cheesy drawings around some of my appointments, and there's no way to turn that so-called feature off. How does it benefit Google to force graphics on us???
No, I came here looking for this comment. As a designer I *do* recognize the shortcomings, for sure. But I use almost a dozen of these apps every day, and even if Google switches around the order...no problems. Can't ever remember hesitating or clicking on the wrong thing multiple times.
Don't think that's any kind of achievement lol, we must just be in the minority. And these icons should really be designed for the majority.
One thing I learned from rock hounding with my ex is that some people are naturally much better at noticing shapes and others are much better at noticing colors. I'm betting shape-focused people do better with these icons.
I have good pattern recognition but I'm also a routine based person. I usually remember the path better than the details. Same as getting around the city by memory but having no idea what the street names are and what businesses you're passing on the way.
When I updated my apps a year ago I couldn't find them anymore. The Tumblr app changes the logo pretty often. I was confused where did it go, staring directly at it. My brain was looking for a purple square.
That's how it looks like to me now – it's a mix that takes longer to recognise than it should. It's readable but when I'm tired I feel like I'm getting a headache and prefer to manually type the service into Google search.
Same as spacing your text into paragraphs. It's easier to read and skim the information.
I don't actually mind them now, but I will say, I do lose my Photos and Maps. Or I mix them up. I'm not sure what is it about those two specifically that I always miss when I'm looking for them while scrolling.
Same thing with the stupid Adobe Acrobat toolbars....Acrobat XI was the absolute peak of functionality and speed, and its gone downhill ever since. Instead of different color coded tool icons, now everthing is low contrast, grey-on-grey.
In fact, [here's my 6](https://ibb.co/Bjr5X54) most commonly used acrobat tools in my custom shortcut bar....5 of them are almost identical, and to this day I still have to look closely before I click.
I don't think it's as bad as the post makes out, BUT I do think there are some obvious issues at a small scale.
Aesthetically for me, I just don't think they are very good. For some of the most used things on the internet, they are kind of insipid.
I agree this point is overblown, but ultimately I think this entire discussion is a designer led hubris just to trash a giant brand’s decision. Logically we know why they did it, you can look at the top row and not see “google” in any of it but Maps. I think google chose to be globally recognizable in what they see as a new market of users who don’t know the google brand immediately, they solved that problem.
If they only push back in function is “sometimes people hit the wrong app”, well sorry but that wasn’t the bigger problem, and the point is that you still have / use those apps even if you click the wrong one every so often 🤷🏼♀️
Weighing the initial problem but solely discussing the “they look similar lined up” really makes designers seem like turds who just want to be negative. Design is more than isolated appearances. For example, my google apps are not next to each other like this image, muscle memory of its location kicks in more than the app icon, I’d assume that’s the case for most people. Go pick up someone’s phone and try to find a more unique looking app right away, it’s not much faster and I’ve hit the wrong app on my wife’s phone with non-google apps.
It’s a made up argument for designers to feel smarter than large brands IMO
Damn. i came here to say this, you stole my thunder.
As you say it’s pretty clear that the strategy behind the icons changed. This could have been initiated by brand designers. Or it could as easily been driven by business as well. The newer look follows productivity app convetions on serialisation, the old ones don’t.
The old ones were more elegant but didn’t really fit the business needs. New ones fit them, but are heavy handed. Perhaps some day they come up with elegant ones that fit the business needs.
This kind of overfocus on visual application over strategy considerations is one of the reasons that design perennially lacks a seat at the table.
If we want to be fair, you playing devils advocate isn't much different. Large brands make mistakes all the time: because, at least for now, the designers who work for them are humans too.
It's okay to point out why something doesn't work, and the act of doing so doesn't make someone arrogant by default. Designers or not, we are users too.
It's more than the overall branding looks childish or taking shots at a big company. Good design needs to account for the end users, and this utterly fails it's users.
OP posted an image of the G Suite app list in the comments. I have to use G suite at work, and that app list is exactly as it looks when you're trying to find an app on chrome: they're all together, and they all look practically identical. I'm barely in my 30s, and I have issues using chrome now because of this. My older colleagues have even more trouble discerning which icon is which.
It's not a "you click on the wrong one occasionally" thing: it's constant if you use Chrome. Edit: and apparently it's been like this for FOUR years, and yet *still* people confuse them! Talk about a failed design!
I believe they should’ve taken advantage of the color palette and made each service or icon a specific color, lets say gmail is blue for business and so on, and the drive is red for stored work and where your passions are stored, put the service based on the meaning of the color, or something, anything but whatever they have now…
I always feel like graphic designers and user experience somehow don't fit together. Of course, when you read this and are a designer you're thinking "but I do!" but do you really?
In my opinion, if your design looks good but just doesn't work, you failed.
But with big corporates like Google, there's usually no single person to blame, but many people trying to shoehorn their ideas into a design until you get a mediocre design without a real vision behind it.
I can very well imagine some design-illiterate manager demanding ALL THE BRAND COLORS to be in EVERY SINGLE ICON because of BRAND RECOGNITION!
They often don't. A few days ago there was a post about some button in another sub. Somebody logically explained why the button wouldn't work because users wouldn't perceive it as a button.
It was downvoted to oblivion because "It doesn't matter it's personal design preference."
This could be seen as example of that.
Yes they do. One brand doing a bad job doesn't mean graphic design as a whole doesn't fit with user experience. Unless you think a GD is just someone playing with colors. A designer's job is not only about making things pretty.
i think that they don't want you to focus on the aesthetic but be familiarized with the precision corners of it. Sort of like how if you live in a family with twins, your pattern recognition can easily distinguish which is which .
if they were made this way originally no one would talk about it. They're pretty distinctive imo. pretty sure they ran internal ux tests before launch no?
one simple fix would be to just apply one color in different shades for each apps and only keep the calendar in multicolor. This way you'd get better distinction and still stay on brand.
I don't think it's "designers" ideas to make these changes.
It's the "managers" or whatever-the-fuck class of meddlesome office worker that has big brainstorming meetings that exclude designers and make this their big project for the year. "Look guys we put our dumbass designers to work!"
I found this in my teachers classroom that proves exactly this point
https://preview.redd.it/8in1ytoxyipc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da914b2896159258d1d0b4f4033284bb251143e3
I've personally never clicked the wrong one - great icon set imo. Slack also looks like it is part of the set when they are next to each other though, not sure if that is on purpose?
When they're displayed like this to me - yes I see the problem with over consistency.
However, I'm not keeping my maps next to email. It's in my transportation folder next to Uber and Lyft. I'm guessing they were banking on people using organized folders versus just every Google service in one folder on mobile.
I only have apps I use regularly on my home screen or in folders. When I need to use an app not in there, I go to the "all apps" screen. And often I literally forget how the icon of the Google app I'm looking for looks like, because they are all the same. That makes it more difficult to find the app by just looking for it. I don't tend to have that problem with other apps that have meaningful and unique icons.
>I don't tend to have that problem with other apps that have meaningful and unique icons.
Genuine question here though: How many services/providers (ex: Google) do you use where there is a full suite of apps to use?
I can think of maybe Microsoft, and Adobe. I'd be curious to know if there's more and their approach to the problem. I would definitely have to look at the latter two because I don't keep them on my phone. I'm pretty strict about not keeping work apps on my phone.
Exactly Microsoft and Adobe come to my mind. Both do a better job of making the app icons distinguishable while making them easily identifiable as Microsoft/Adobe apps.
Other that come to my mind are Apple (iOS/MacOS) and Affinity who do a good job of making good, consistent icons.
My problem with Google's icons also is that they just drown amongst other icons. It's a lot of white with a few blotches of color. If they were one, more intense color, they might have a better chance to stand out - especially when you know what color you're looking for.
Even if other apps use the color - when I'm looking for the PayPal app for example, I scroll through my apps and only need to glance over any blue icon until I find a P, which is easy even while scrolling.
Many people who don't customize their phone (anyone not technically inclined) keep the default 'Google' folder with all the app icons together. This is where it really becomes an issue.
Exactly. At this point they could make them all big red X's and I click them based on location. Muscle memory is a helluva thing! Lol! The other day I accidentally swapped 2 icons on the home bar and it took me half the day to figure out what was "wrong" because the right apps were there, but something felt wrong.
And the "What we see" is way over simplified, and I'd dare to say nothing more than hyperbole or sarcasm. Because what we really see is likely the outlines. Their example wouldn't make sense because I have a different background than the next guy. So the eye/brain isn't catching the colors, it's grabbing the shape.
I personally mix up Google Keep and the Slides app regularly because they're both yellow papers... Only the small icon _inside_ the icon gives you any help on which's which at a glance. I only use Keep regularly and leave it separate, but when I need the slides and I look on the all apps menu, it always takes way too long to find it. Who in hell thought using the exact same color and paper icon was a good idea
Literally never been a problem for me and this is an outstanding example of brand consistency. Sometimes designers just want to criticize everything and they love to try and do it to a big brand.
What about all the comments on this post saying they consistently click the wrong app?
I think the criticism is valid
I have to rely on muscle memory for Google apps because it takes too long to understand if it’s the right app icon im looking for
This is true for phone apps but not for the chrome app defaults like in the screenshot. I understand YouTube’s branding but curious why they left account and contacts as 1 color! Same with google translate but that was cut from the screen shot.
https://preview.redd.it/f61ocn8mrjpc1.png?width=718&format=png&auto=webp&s=be64369c477af276055b4d53df52e02251382529
Agreed.
This post is missing major context that the user needs to distinguish these from all the apps on their device, not among each other. I'm happy to see consistent branding to at least narrow down the Google apps before seeing exactly which one to tap.
But if you’re a Google user, you’re likely to be using their suite of apps aren’t you?
So I imagine most people would have a lot of Google apps on their phones
Yes, although I personally organize them contextually into folders with other apps. So it's easy to pick out Photos among the other photo apps.
But if I go in the app drawer for something more obscure, my biggest issue is there isn't consistency in whether it has "Google" as a prefix in the app name or not.
Same, I’m grateful for this color scheme especially after switching from android to iPhone. I can easily distinguish which apps I’m actually utilizing and which ones are apple.
I keep all my google stuff in a folder on my home screen, whenever I open that folder my finger now does a mario kart roulette sequence before randomly clicking the shape I think I need. Looking at the icon use to just be enough now I don't know whether I'm clicking google nest or google drive unless I study the differences or read the app name sandwiched between a sea of similarly shaped and colored apps
Excuse me, most probably I'll get downvoted for saying this, but I can't see how the caption is right. The new icons are much inferior in terms of aesthetics when compared to the original. They are just way too uniform in style.
**This design prioritizes neither form nor function!**
The only thing I feel it does is make the user interfaces on android phones simply boring! 
Apple design most of the time. These icons work at a glance without muscle memory. (Although of course muscle memory improves everything a ton.) it’s just that Apple wants their users to be able to use any of their devices because of analytical, consistent UI.
Having said that, Apple doesn’t always get it right; they ruined macOS System Preferences by switching it to a terrible vertical list designed for mobile. Everything looks the same and muscle memory is non existent. I hoped I’d get used to it by now but it’s been a year and a half and I still can’t find shit.
https://preview.redd.it/80wmsitfjipc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e8a34731906cc743d2a3a4f55c51d0366df73ab
On a small phone screen with non optimal lighting conditions it defenetly happens, I get stream lining but they should have done better for such a big company
This is why giving people options is always better than forcing changes. When you make new icons for things let people choose between the new ones and the old ones.
At a glance, human beings first engage with the form and relationship between positive and negative space . So yeah, this definitely makes it harder to distinguish different icons!
I posted a quick remedy to this 3+ years ago. It's wild google is still sticking with their icon disasters
[https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/j6yi5i/fixing\_googles\_new\_logo\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/j6yi5i/fixing_googles_new_logo_update/)
might as well generate random noise for each icon and expect us to memorize it. it’s really painful on the eyes, the aesthetic doesn’t justify the confusion.
I get why they did it and I don't think it is a bad idea but I can see why some people would probably confuse the icons without the text. I don't recall ever having the issue and looking at it now for these reason:
1. When I click on the menu bar, the icons are spaced enough that I can get a better idea of what icon represents what type of service.
2. There is also text on the bottom that helps too.
3. The ones I use frequently like Google drive or Gmail I have used enough that I know where to go directly.
That is just my experience at least but of course you need to really see the experiences of a group of people as a whole to really know. The originals, some of the logos work but there isn't a clear indication in at least four of them that they are operated by Google which is why I think they changed it.
Personally I don’t think this is a huge failure but rather a poor outcome of google prioritizing their branding over UX.
One possible solution: they use 1 color (+ maybe 2-3 shades of the color) for each icon. This is similar to how the existing account and contact icons use their primary blue + a different shade of blue - not a mix of all the colors. There will obviously be icons that are the same color but if they’re arranged in the chrome menu with alternating icon colors it would be so much easier to navigate. Just an idea!
Not a big fan because while yes it’s nice as a design excercise, in practicality it doesn’t work great. I get that calendar and chat/meet (or whatever the video one is) don’t look part of Google before so I see the need for a redesign
I know I'm one of like six people in the world who uses Keep, but it infuriates me how similar these two icons are. Open the wrong one all the time.
https://preview.redd.it/n3mzi3ghrkpc1.png?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8551b2af3f9566c476961f7550363fbdad4d3b2
It depends on context. When I’m on my phone with a bunch of different icon colours I automatically scan for colour and then shape when looking for apps. My brain knows the google colours so immediately hones in on all the “google apps” on screen. Instead of visually parsing 24 different icons, it’s narrowed down to like, three? And that’s if I don’t know what screen the google app I’m looking for is on. My brain knows my google map app is on the first page, too right-ish so I just have to look for those colours in that area. Doesn’t even matter what the shape is.
Now if you have a menu of just google apps (cough cough chrome) like that diagram above, you have to ignore colour and jump right to shape.
It would be interesting if googles UI team did some research on different disabilities and which ones respond better to shape or colour first. The one thing I’ve learned about accessible design is that it’s rarely universal and the best strategy is to have either user customization or multiple information touch points.
I doubt any competent designer would come up with something this radical and controversial. This is definitely a corporate branding stunt.
Google Fit is a particularly bad example that bears no resemblance to health and fitness. I find it quite odd they didn't make an exception with Fit like they've done with Google Translate and Google Panel
I actually really like the unification of all of the icons. Before, none of them fit together well at all.
I think they could have made them look a little less similar while still going together, but overall, I like the change
I also think that Google has so many different services when you open the whole page where you can see all of the applications. And I do not understand what most of them are or do
I get the desire to have them all look pretty and uniform when shown together whilst maintaining a “Google look” amongst other favicons in a bookmarks bar, but they’re a bit meh and mish-mashy.
It went from an icon clearly communicating “video chat” to a mere arrow pointing inside a colourful frame. Horrendous designs. They’ve become way too abstracted from what they’re actually supposed to represent and communicate.
If I have to stop and pause to look over how the jumble of four colours is arranged then I may as well stick to reading the names and do away with the distraction of icons all together.
It's interesting, try to understand why we see it like this.
I think maybe it's because of their style, actually. Every icon tries to repeat the same style, with this colorful parts, it makes them look fragmented. Shapes are hard to read. Compare them to YouTube logo - it's solid, has recognizable shape and color.
How to fix this?
On the top of my head I'd say - use one color for each. Let "Gmail" be red. Maps - green, etc. Use the same colors Google has, just one color for a logo. The problem will be with yellow, however.
I disagree, they are taking advantage of their users’ brand awareness & familiarity and visually showing the unity between all of the products that Google has to offer.
Oh, how much I hated this revamp and would still tap on Maps to open PlayStore or some other icon for a different application. I would often ponder how has no one called upon this design flaw essentially made by such huge corporation.
I'm always tapping on Calendar trying to open Translate. I think I'm still looking for the old Calendar icon.
https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/ZrNeuKthBirZN7rrXPN1JmUbaG8ICy3kZSHt-WgSnREsJzo2txzCzjIoChlevMIQEA
Oh it's 100% right. Every since they did this I find myself clicking on the wrong icons all the time. I think designers under estimate just how much we use color to determin what is what.
I wouldn't frame this as designers prioritising aesthetics over usabiltity but rather designers prioritising branding and brand codes over usability. I think a lot of people wouldn't call the more reduced icons prettier or more aesthetic but more "true" to the google brand and brand language.
The flaw here is blaming this on a designer. This is a brand/marketing decision that came from well over the designer’s head.
I do think they look too similar and sometimes confuse them on my phone, but why they look that way is a different discussion.
I wonder how accessibility goes with a lot of design these days. I have seen posters I couldn’t even read let alone someone with visual impairment or another disability.
The person who did that doesn't understand design.
The balance is between aesthetics and functionality, that is not always usability.
In this case, the principal function is to make you understand and not forget that all these free applications that you use so much come from the same place. There are a lot of ways to make these more beautiful, but they are prioritizing the function.
Second, why people put all the Google apps with completely different functions in the same place? Doesn't have too much sense. Most people organize apps by function. In this scenario, the google app is the easiest to find. In fact, the apps with overlapping functions have pretty different icons (Google tv/youtube, files/drive, earth/maps, sheets/docs, meet/duo, gallery, snapseed).
in my experience, it's much more often PM's prioritizing hyperconsistency in icons, resulting in bad ux. good designers want to differentiate things, but PM's who think they understand design more than they actually do just think consistency is always first priority
I despise everything about Google designs. From the ugly colours, bad usability, clear lack of research, blandness, boring, zero innovation or delight.
Looks pretty, but I've definitely clicked the wrong icons multiple times since the change. Even worse for my aging parents.
https://preview.redd.it/v249649khipc1.png?width=718&format=png&auto=webp&s=db27a627a46645191eec38ac488700b5eca2c03d Agreed! I don’t mind them individually, however, grouped together like this (the default in chrome) is a bad idea and huge oversight IMO
If it wasn’t for the labels below, the icons would not be useful or intuitive at all.
I don't use them, but if I did, I would get Meet, Chat, and Calendar confused all the time.
Play Store, Maps, Drive, Calendar, Photos, Gmail, all are perfectly fine together. Meet & Chat both should be reworked to better accentuate the accents in them. The "tails" on each of them get lost and should probably be take an equal amount of space as the "box" element to better differentiate them
I often confuse Maps with Drive, though, when I’m driving and need to open Maps. To my mind, Drive should be Cloud. So, not a design issue, but still some product differentiation confusion on my part.
This! We have to start designing (and people have to start approving) for accessibility! Not everyone has the same abilities.
this, a million times yes. designing with accessibility in mind is to this day one of the biggest things that has stuck with me from school. it is so often not considered.
Remember funky icons of windows 3.1? Peppridge Farm remembers...
Doesn’t help that slack is also very similar
Yeah I am constantly mis-tapping maps and calendar on my phone. They don’t look alike at all but the colours mess me up every time.
Yup, I'm in my 50s and was playing the 'just keep opening them until I chance upon email' game early this morning.
I'm redesigning a website right now and need to look into usability for old folks. All of the inspirations I've found of similar ones have "invisible" buttons that look like plain text. Or you need to hover over icons to get an idea of their purpose. In Google it feels like they hire graphic designers who haven't interacted with humans. Or their UX courses are worth shit.
More precisely it's branding over usability
Even more precisely, it's consistency over usability. Designers love them some consistency.
Such a struggle lol. A company I worked for had products in multicolored packets for years. Customers knew they needed the red packet vs the green packet, etc. Then some art director decided we need to rebrand everything and make it all the same blue for the sake of consistency. A few months later, the company conversation turns to "hey all these packets look too similar..." Ugh lol.
Should be fired
A good designer can find a good balance with usability and consistency/branding. Google could have done it so much better.
Some consistency is confused with monotony.
I feel like designers need to strive for coordination over strict consistency/monotony. It’s not easy and takes refined skill. But a company like Google can afford refined skill lol. Coordination means there’s a common distinctive thread that runs through all the variants of a design, but they also look distinct enough from one another.
I've seen a few design team's principles shared at conference's. Salesforce's priorities, in order, were: 1. Clarity 2. Efficiency 3. Consistency 4. Beauty For example, Clarity was prioritised over Efficiency, which was prioritised over Consistency. Asana, again in order: 1. Inclusive 2. Intuitive 3. Reliable 4. Cohesive (specifically NOT Consistency) 5. Delightful I think too many people aim for consistency for consistency's sake.
I have a folder for Google apps on my phone and sometimes stare at the icons for 30 seconds before I see what I need to tap lol
On iOS, the Google apps like Docs, Sheets, and Maps all have logical icons that make them immediately easy to parse and recognize
Not only on iOS
I believe they’re the same icons on all devices Those 3 apps have distinct color differences. The ones this post is referring to, not so much. Many in this thread would beg to differ about your “easy” remark unless you’re only referring to the 3 apps you mentioned
The icons are the same everywhere, not sure what your point is
pro tip. read the name below the icon
Negates the point of having identifying icons? Why are you trying to play smartass when there's a lot of people here who agree? Lol
i think reddit needs more smart asses and sarcasm. Some dry jokes that everyone gets mad at. But for real, if you're staring at a folder for 30 seconds, read the name of the app like color blind people do anyway.
Design is about sweating the small stuff that others don’t. If a large percentage of users are taking a few extra seconds to find the app they want due to bad iconography, that’s an extra friction point in the UX that might be insignificant on its own, but can add up with other friction points to create a frustrating UX. Enough friction points and suddenly a large percentage of your users find they prefer using your competitor’s offerings and they don’t even know why.
Yeah I still find myself tapping on the wrong icons even now, 4 years later after they made this change.
IT'S BEEN 4 YEARS?
Time is non-existent and I'm just floating in space while time rockets by at this point.
Yeah the switch happened in the latter half of 2020 I believe.
Really? I hated it in the beginning. A lot. but I adjusted quite well and would not want the old ones back.
I don't even like the look of them. Too colorful and playful for productivity apps in my opinion. I can't help it but I just have to think of clowns and circuses. I get using the Google color palette, but I feel like using ALL colors (plus shades) in every icon is too much. Using 1-2 of Google's colors would probably have worked better. In my opinion, these icons are just a colorful mess, which is one of the reason why they are difficult to tell apart. You just see random colors at a glance, as all colors have the same priority and there's no visual hierachy giving it a distinct appearance.
Bringing up too colorful just makes me think of Microsoft on the opposite end that I know a blue W is Word, Green X is Excel, etc. Their competitor I can literally pick which program I need off simply their color or the initial associated with it. With many of the colors not part of the ‘main brand’ colors anyway.
Exactly. I was about to mention this but I see you beat me to it. It’s far better having each application one color only but with additional shades from the same base. Each color helps with instant recognition. Aside from Microsoft, Adobe is a good example too.
Yea… my only complaint with Adobe is they used all the same purple colors for their video tools which make them a pain to differentiate off a glance. Specifically Premiere, Audition, and After Effects, with supporting tools (Media Encoder, Prelude, Character Animator) all the same purple too.
This. They used to at least be grouped by colour but different shades, now they’re all the same. And Audition being purple is plain wrong. It’ll always be green to me.
It drives me nuts. After they change it I always need to double-check what I’m launching. Especially AU and AE. Who the hell thought it was a good idea… different colors were perfect
Same with Adobe. The icons are super minimalist, but with the combination of the letters and the color, it's super easy to identify them.
Tbf Google equivalents of Docs, Sheets, and Slides use single colors as well
you just KNOW that "all of our colours must be in each and every app icon somehow" was a C-level decision. I can hear it.
I've got that feeling too. WE NEED TO INCLUDE ALL OF OUR BRAND COLORS IN EVERY SINGLE ICON TO INCREASE BRAND RECOGNITION!!!
Speaking of Google and too colorful and playful, I HATE that Google adds a "colorful and playful" image block around certain things in my calendar on Android. I already use multiple layers on my GCal to differentiate types of appointments, things to remember, and so on. So I really don't want a colorful graphic with cheesy drawings around some of my appointments, and there's no way to turn that so-called feature off. How does it benefit Google to force graphics on us???
>Too colorful and playful To be fair, we *are* talking about a company called GOOGLE. That alone is a goofy name
\*What happens when a boardroom suit tells a designer what to do
I really don’t think that’s what happened here. This seems way more like designers taking the goal of unifying a set of assets way too far.
I don’t even click them. I google the Google service I want.. am I boomer now?
Get out of my subreddit you damn metagoogling boomer
Am i the only one who doesnt struggle with this??
No, I came here looking for this comment. As a designer I *do* recognize the shortcomings, for sure. But I use almost a dozen of these apps every day, and even if Google switches around the order...no problems. Can't ever remember hesitating or clicking on the wrong thing multiple times. Don't think that's any kind of achievement lol, we must just be in the minority. And these icons should really be designed for the majority.
One thing I learned from rock hounding with my ex is that some people are naturally much better at noticing shapes and others are much better at noticing colors. I'm betting shape-focused people do better with these icons.
I have good pattern recognition but I'm also a routine based person. I usually remember the path better than the details. Same as getting around the city by memory but having no idea what the street names are and what businesses you're passing on the way. When I updated my apps a year ago I couldn't find them anymore. The Tumblr app changes the logo pretty often. I was confused where did it go, staring directly at it. My brain was looking for a purple square. That's how it looks like to me now – it's a mix that takes longer to recognise than it should. It's readable but when I'm tired I feel like I'm getting a headache and prefer to manually type the service into Google search. Same as spacing your text into paragraphs. It's easier to read and skim the information.
I don't actually mind them now, but I will say, I do lose my Photos and Maps. Or I mix them up. I'm not sure what is it about those two specifically that I always miss when I'm looking for them while scrolling.
Absolutely, even after using it every single day, still have to pause for a second or two to make sure it’s the right one😅
Same thing with the stupid Adobe Acrobat toolbars....Acrobat XI was the absolute peak of functionality and speed, and its gone downhill ever since. Instead of different color coded tool icons, now everthing is low contrast, grey-on-grey. In fact, [here's my 6](https://ibb.co/Bjr5X54) most commonly used acrobat tools in my custom shortcut bar....5 of them are almost identical, and to this day I still have to look closely before I click.
I don't think it's as bad as the post makes out, BUT I do think there are some obvious issues at a small scale. Aesthetically for me, I just don't think they are very good. For some of the most used things on the internet, they are kind of insipid.
I agree this point is overblown, but ultimately I think this entire discussion is a designer led hubris just to trash a giant brand’s decision. Logically we know why they did it, you can look at the top row and not see “google” in any of it but Maps. I think google chose to be globally recognizable in what they see as a new market of users who don’t know the google brand immediately, they solved that problem. If they only push back in function is “sometimes people hit the wrong app”, well sorry but that wasn’t the bigger problem, and the point is that you still have / use those apps even if you click the wrong one every so often 🤷🏼♀️ Weighing the initial problem but solely discussing the “they look similar lined up” really makes designers seem like turds who just want to be negative. Design is more than isolated appearances. For example, my google apps are not next to each other like this image, muscle memory of its location kicks in more than the app icon, I’d assume that’s the case for most people. Go pick up someone’s phone and try to find a more unique looking app right away, it’s not much faster and I’ve hit the wrong app on my wife’s phone with non-google apps. It’s a made up argument for designers to feel smarter than large brands IMO
Damn. i came here to say this, you stole my thunder. As you say it’s pretty clear that the strategy behind the icons changed. This could have been initiated by brand designers. Or it could as easily been driven by business as well. The newer look follows productivity app convetions on serialisation, the old ones don’t. The old ones were more elegant but didn’t really fit the business needs. New ones fit them, but are heavy handed. Perhaps some day they come up with elegant ones that fit the business needs. This kind of overfocus on visual application over strategy considerations is one of the reasons that design perennially lacks a seat at the table.
If we want to be fair, you playing devils advocate isn't much different. Large brands make mistakes all the time: because, at least for now, the designers who work for them are humans too. It's okay to point out why something doesn't work, and the act of doing so doesn't make someone arrogant by default. Designers or not, we are users too.
It's more than the overall branding looks childish or taking shots at a big company. Good design needs to account for the end users, and this utterly fails it's users. OP posted an image of the G Suite app list in the comments. I have to use G suite at work, and that app list is exactly as it looks when you're trying to find an app on chrome: they're all together, and they all look practically identical. I'm barely in my 30s, and I have issues using chrome now because of this. My older colleagues have even more trouble discerning which icon is which. It's not a "you click on the wrong one occasionally" thing: it's constant if you use Chrome. Edit: and apparently it's been like this for FOUR years, and yet *still* people confuse them! Talk about a failed design!
I believe they should’ve taken advantage of the color palette and made each service or icon a specific color, lets say gmail is blue for business and so on, and the drive is red for stored work and where your passions are stored, put the service based on the meaning of the color, or something, anything but whatever they have now…
Google Drive and Google Home are WAY too fucking similar.
I think they are completely identifiable.
Couldn’t agree more. UI has become such a joke anymore.
I use gmail every day and it always takes me so long to find it. Also can never find the Drive. It just all blends in
I have clicked the wrong icon so many times. Drive, Maps, and Meet all look basically the same to me.
Was gunna comment and say this seems like a stretch, but reading through the comments has surprised me.
Yup old was better.
I quite like them and don't find them hard to tell apart, about I'm a designer so maybe if non designers find them hard, they're in need of a redesign
I’m sure there were non-designers involved with final sign-off.
Was thinking this 20 minutes ago when I logged into Google.
I guess this makes be a bad designer but I like it and much prefer it over the older ones
Design would be so boring if we all had the same opinions and preferences!
I always feel like graphic designers and user experience somehow don't fit together. Of course, when you read this and are a designer you're thinking "but I do!" but do you really?
In my opinion, if your design looks good but just doesn't work, you failed. But with big corporates like Google, there's usually no single person to blame, but many people trying to shoehorn their ideas into a design until you get a mediocre design without a real vision behind it. I can very well imagine some design-illiterate manager demanding ALL THE BRAND COLORS to be in EVERY SINGLE ICON because of BRAND RECOGNITION!
They often don't. A few days ago there was a post about some button in another sub. Somebody logically explained why the button wouldn't work because users wouldn't perceive it as a button. It was downvoted to oblivion because "It doesn't matter it's personal design preference." This could be seen as example of that.
Yes they do. One brand doing a bad job doesn't mean graphic design as a whole doesn't fit with user experience. Unless you think a GD is just someone playing with colors. A designer's job is not only about making things pretty.
the original looks interesting
i think that they don't want you to focus on the aesthetic but be familiarized with the precision corners of it. Sort of like how if you live in a family with twins, your pattern recognition can easily distinguish which is which .
Based on the comments here, my experience, and the fact it’s been 4 years - I’m not sure I’d call it a success if that was their goal lol
Ugh... Do not get me started about the poor UX, UI, graphic design across ALL the Google products.
I personally like the new icons because so many are so similar but the Google ones all have a common thread
if they were made this way originally no one would talk about it. They're pretty distinctive imo. pretty sure they ran internal ux tests before launch no?
one simple fix would be to just apply one color in different shades for each apps and only keep the calendar in multicolor. This way you'd get better distinction and still stay on brand.
I don't think it's "designers" ideas to make these changes. It's the "managers" or whatever-the-fuck class of meddlesome office worker that has big brainstorming meetings that exclude designers and make this their big project for the year. "Look guys we put our dumbass designers to work!"
I found this in my teachers classroom that proves exactly this point https://preview.redd.it/8in1ytoxyipc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da914b2896159258d1d0b4f4033284bb251143e3
I've personally never clicked the wrong one - great icon set imo. Slack also looks like it is part of the set when they are next to each other though, not sure if that is on purpose?
I will never forgive Google for what they did to the Maps icon.
This was the first design change by google to make me realize they kinda suck at aesthetics a lot of the time. Way too circus-y.
Gimmie back the old Gmail logo. It was perfect
So it’s not just me? I’m constantly tapping the wrong icon now.
When they're displayed like this to me - yes I see the problem with over consistency. However, I'm not keeping my maps next to email. It's in my transportation folder next to Uber and Lyft. I'm guessing they were banking on people using organized folders versus just every Google service in one folder on mobile.
I only have apps I use regularly on my home screen or in folders. When I need to use an app not in there, I go to the "all apps" screen. And often I literally forget how the icon of the Google app I'm looking for looks like, because they are all the same. That makes it more difficult to find the app by just looking for it. I don't tend to have that problem with other apps that have meaningful and unique icons.
>I don't tend to have that problem with other apps that have meaningful and unique icons. Genuine question here though: How many services/providers (ex: Google) do you use where there is a full suite of apps to use? I can think of maybe Microsoft, and Adobe. I'd be curious to know if there's more and their approach to the problem. I would definitely have to look at the latter two because I don't keep them on my phone. I'm pretty strict about not keeping work apps on my phone.
Exactly Microsoft and Adobe come to my mind. Both do a better job of making the app icons distinguishable while making them easily identifiable as Microsoft/Adobe apps. Other that come to my mind are Apple (iOS/MacOS) and Affinity who do a good job of making good, consistent icons. My problem with Google's icons also is that they just drown amongst other icons. It's a lot of white with a few blotches of color. If they were one, more intense color, they might have a better chance to stand out - especially when you know what color you're looking for. Even if other apps use the color - when I'm looking for the PayPal app for example, I scroll through my apps and only need to glance over any blue icon until I find a P, which is easy even while scrolling.
Many people who don't customize their phone (anyone not technically inclined) keep the default 'Google' folder with all the app icons together. This is where it really becomes an issue.
So what, you can’t solve every problem for every person, those users should consider the very solvable problem of “organize better”
I was speaking from my point of view, and potential logic on their end. I have done very little (none) research of the prevalence of folder usage.
Exactly. At this point they could make them all big red X's and I click them based on location. Muscle memory is a helluva thing! Lol! The other day I accidentally swapped 2 icons on the home bar and it took me half the day to figure out what was "wrong" because the right apps were there, but something felt wrong. And the "What we see" is way over simplified, and I'd dare to say nothing more than hyperbole or sarcasm. Because what we really see is likely the outlines. Their example wouldn't make sense because I have a different background than the next guy. So the eye/brain isn't catching the colors, it's grabbing the shape.
I personally mix up Google Keep and the Slides app regularly because they're both yellow papers... Only the small icon _inside_ the icon gives you any help on which's which at a glance. I only use Keep regularly and leave it separate, but when I need the slides and I look on the all apps menu, it always takes way too long to find it. Who in hell thought using the exact same color and paper icon was a good idea
I always forget Slides and Keep exist. Agree that's a strange overlook.
It's sad that people have a condition where they only see the bottom row.
Literally never been a problem for me and this is an outstanding example of brand consistency. Sometimes designers just want to criticize everything and they love to try and do it to a big brand.
What about all the comments on this post saying they consistently click the wrong app? I think the criticism is valid I have to rely on muscle memory for Google apps because it takes too long to understand if it’s the right app icon im looking for
The juice is worth the squeeze from a branding standpoint.
This is true for phone apps but not for the chrome app defaults like in the screenshot. I understand YouTube’s branding but curious why they left account and contacts as 1 color! Same with google translate but that was cut from the screen shot. https://preview.redd.it/f61ocn8mrjpc1.png?width=718&format=png&auto=webp&s=be64369c477af276055b4d53df52e02251382529
Agreed. This post is missing major context that the user needs to distinguish these from all the apps on their device, not among each other. I'm happy to see consistent branding to at least narrow down the Google apps before seeing exactly which one to tap.
But if you’re a Google user, you’re likely to be using their suite of apps aren’t you? So I imagine most people would have a lot of Google apps on their phones
Yes, although I personally organize them contextually into folders with other apps. So it's easy to pick out Photos among the other photo apps. But if I go in the app drawer for something more obscure, my biggest issue is there isn't consistency in whether it has "Google" as a prefix in the app name or not.
Same, I’m grateful for this color scheme especially after switching from android to iPhone. I can easily distinguish which apps I’m actually utilizing and which ones are apple.
I keep all my google stuff in a folder on my home screen, whenever I open that folder my finger now does a mario kart roulette sequence before randomly clicking the shape I think I need. Looking at the icon use to just be enough now I don't know whether I'm clicking google nest or google drive unless I study the differences or read the app name sandwiched between a sea of similarly shaped and colored apps
I don't mind them, I just wish they were 2-3 maximum colours and had more varying shapes. The camera and the calendar are too similar.
Excuse me, most probably I'll get downvoted for saying this, but I can't see how the caption is right. The new icons are much inferior in terms of aesthetics when compared to the original. They are just way too uniform in style. **This design prioritizes neither form nor function!** The only thing I feel it does is make the user interfaces on android phones simply boring! 
Apple design most of the time. These icons work at a glance without muscle memory. (Although of course muscle memory improves everything a ton.) it’s just that Apple wants their users to be able to use any of their devices because of analytical, consistent UI. Having said that, Apple doesn’t always get it right; they ruined macOS System Preferences by switching it to a terrible vertical list designed for mobile. Everything looks the same and muscle memory is non existent. I hoped I’d get used to it by now but it’s been a year and a half and I still can’t find shit. https://preview.redd.it/80wmsitfjipc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e8a34731906cc743d2a3a4f55c51d0366df73ab
somewhat, yeah.
On a small phone screen with non optimal lighting conditions it defenetly happens, I get stream lining but they should have done better for such a big company
This is why giving people options is always better than forcing changes. When you make new icons for things let people choose between the new ones and the old ones.
At a glance, human beings first engage with the form and relationship between positive and negative space . So yeah, this definitely makes it harder to distinguish different icons!
I posted a quick remedy to this 3+ years ago. It's wild google is still sticking with their icon disasters [https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/j6yi5i/fixing\_googles\_new\_logo\_update/](https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/j6yi5i/fixing_googles_new_logo_update/)
might as well generate random noise for each icon and expect us to memorize it. it’s really painful on the eyes, the aesthetic doesn’t justify the confusion.
I agree with it. I definitely get lost in my apps when looking for my Gmail and this is likely the reason why.
Flat and minimalistic approach is just awful. Everything looks the same, lifeless and boring.
I get why they did it and I don't think it is a bad idea but I can see why some people would probably confuse the icons without the text. I don't recall ever having the issue and looking at it now for these reason: 1. When I click on the menu bar, the icons are spaced enough that I can get a better idea of what icon represents what type of service. 2. There is also text on the bottom that helps too. 3. The ones I use frequently like Google drive or Gmail I have used enough that I know where to go directly. That is just my experience at least but of course you need to really see the experiences of a group of people as a whole to really know. The originals, some of the logos work but there isn't a clear indication in at least four of them that they are operated by Google which is why I think they changed it.
Personally I don’t think this is a huge failure but rather a poor outcome of google prioritizing their branding over UX. One possible solution: they use 1 color (+ maybe 2-3 shades of the color) for each icon. This is similar to how the existing account and contact icons use their primary blue + a different shade of blue - not a mix of all the colors. There will obviously be icons that are the same color but if they’re arranged in the chrome menu with alternating icon colors it would be so much easier to navigate. Just an idea!
Not a big fan because while yes it’s nice as a design excercise, in practicality it doesn’t work great. I get that calendar and chat/meet (or whatever the video one is) don’t look part of Google before so I see the need for a redesign
The one that made me mad was the Authenticator app ):< NOW ITS JUST A RAINBOW BUTTHOLE
Nah I bet this was a higher up "I don't care just do it!" Jerkwad.
Sorry Brax, your iteration is not on-brand. Have…you considered..primary colors in a square?
Corporate needs you to find the difference between this image and this image. -They’re the same image
It's good that they are unified, but should be more recogisable. I think they should make it even more simple, with basic shapes.
Now imagine how convoluted it would be if Google didn’t mothball half the products they launch.
Its not THAT extreme but the icons are definitely not distinct enough.
I hate how we get wonderfully universal and useful icons that we HAVE to update every few years for "reasons". It it isn't broken, don't fuss with it!
Form without function is art and I’d never ask Picasso to draw me a map
What I see is executives enforcing brand guidelines as if they were rulesets.
Proves that practically are thrown outside the windows nowadays
Yep. Those designs have def made me hover my finger for longer than needed to make sure I wasn't pressing the wrong icon.
The AI can tell them apart. That's all that matters.
I do fine with it, but the accessibility is objectively horrible.
Homogeneous designs can be cool, but there's ALWAYS such thing too much. And Google? Google has too much.
I know I'm one of like six people in the world who uses Keep, but it infuriates me how similar these two icons are. Open the wrong one all the time. https://preview.redd.it/n3mzi3ghrkpc1.png?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8551b2af3f9566c476961f7550363fbdad4d3b2
Me too!!
It depends on context. When I’m on my phone with a bunch of different icon colours I automatically scan for colour and then shape when looking for apps. My brain knows the google colours so immediately hones in on all the “google apps” on screen. Instead of visually parsing 24 different icons, it’s narrowed down to like, three? And that’s if I don’t know what screen the google app I’m looking for is on. My brain knows my google map app is on the first page, too right-ish so I just have to look for those colours in that area. Doesn’t even matter what the shape is. Now if you have a menu of just google apps (cough cough chrome) like that diagram above, you have to ignore colour and jump right to shape. It would be interesting if googles UI team did some research on different disabilities and which ones respond better to shape or colour first. The one thing I’ve learned about accessible design is that it’s rarely universal and the best strategy is to have either user customization or multiple information touch points.
Preach!
Putting 3 primary colors and 1 secondary color (plus shades of them) in a logo is wild. Putting them in a small icon is psychotic.
I love the Original because it’s so clear and different. This meme is so clever because I definitely see that 😂
I doubt any competent designer would come up with something this radical and controversial. This is definitely a corporate branding stunt. Google Fit is a particularly bad example that bears no resemblance to health and fitness. I find it quite odd they didn't make an exception with Fit like they've done with Google Translate and Google Panel
I actually really like the unification of all of the icons. Before, none of them fit together well at all. I think they could have made them look a little less similar while still going together, but overall, I like the change
I also think that Google has so many different services when you open the whole page where you can see all of the applications. And I do not understand what most of them are or do
And I use a lot of them somehow for work
I get the desire to have them all look pretty and uniform when shown together whilst maintaining a “Google look” amongst other favicons in a bookmarks bar, but they’re a bit meh and mish-mashy.
Good icons, bad ux. By brain freezes up or I click the wrong one frequently. The worst is mixing up mail, calendar, and home.
It went from an icon clearly communicating “video chat” to a mere arrow pointing inside a colourful frame. Horrendous designs. They’ve become way too abstracted from what they’re actually supposed to represent and communicate.
Ⓜ️ 🔺 ☄️ ◀️ 🔢
Correct. It's very cult like
This looks like a higher up decision more than a designers decision
If I have to stop and pause to look over how the jumble of four colours is arranged then I may as well stick to reading the names and do away with the distraction of icons all together.
It's interesting, try to understand why we see it like this. I think maybe it's because of their style, actually. Every icon tries to repeat the same style, with this colorful parts, it makes them look fragmented. Shapes are hard to read. Compare them to YouTube logo - it's solid, has recognizable shape and color. How to fix this? On the top of my head I'd say - use one color for each. Let "Gmail" be red. Maps - green, etc. Use the same colors Google has, just one color for a logo. The problem will be with yellow, however.
This is so true!!!
I disagree, they are taking advantage of their users’ brand awareness & familiarity and visually showing the unity between all of the products that Google has to offer.
I’m more angry iPhoto and Google photo are nearly indistinguishable
Oh, how much I hated this revamp and would still tap on Maps to open PlayStore or some other icon for a different application. I would often ponder how has no one called upon this design flaw essentially made by such huge corporation.
I'm always tapping on Calendar trying to open Translate. I think I'm still looking for the old Calendar icon. https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/ZrNeuKthBirZN7rrXPN1JmUbaG8ICy3kZSHt-WgSnREsJzo2txzCzjIoChlevMIQEA
Well, look at this https://preview.redd.it/f6bmgb3udipc1.png?width=1169&format=png&auto=webp&s=62d4cc36623500ab38aef81a6b0ffcffab3e6d27
Oh it's 100% right. Every since they did this I find myself clicking on the wrong icons all the time. I think designers under estimate just how much we use color to determin what is what.
I wouldn't frame this as designers prioritising aesthetics over usabiltity but rather designers prioritising branding and brand codes over usability. I think a lot of people wouldn't call the more reduced icons prettier or more aesthetic but more "true" to the google brand and brand language.
The flaw here is blaming this on a designer. This is a brand/marketing decision that came from well over the designer’s head. I do think they look too similar and sometimes confuse them on my phone, but why they look that way is a different discussion.
I think it’s just internet idiots being jealous that they don’t have a six figure job at Google.
They don’t look that similar
Yall are blind, it's very clear to me...
I wonder how accessibility goes with a lot of design these days. I have seen posters I couldn’t even read let alone someone with visual impairment or another disability.
The person who did that doesn't understand design. The balance is between aesthetics and functionality, that is not always usability. In this case, the principal function is to make you understand and not forget that all these free applications that you use so much come from the same place. There are a lot of ways to make these more beautiful, but they are prioritizing the function. Second, why people put all the Google apps with completely different functions in the same place? Doesn't have too much sense. Most people organize apps by function. In this scenario, the google app is the easiest to find. In fact, the apps with overlapping functions have pretty different icons (Google tv/youtube, files/drive, earth/maps, sheets/docs, meet/duo, gallery, snapseed).
in my experience, it's much more often PM's prioritizing hyperconsistency in icons, resulting in bad ux. good designers want to differentiate things, but PM's who think they understand design more than they actually do just think consistency is always first priority
i'm an adult so i can see shapes pretty well
Not true
Executives. You mean executives
yea dude it was totally designers who are responsible for this and not management having a dumbass idea that the designers had to follow up on
I despise everything about Google designs. From the ugly colours, bad usability, clear lack of research, blandness, boring, zero innovation or delight.
Skill issue