Icons are mnemonics, not signposts. Once you know what a button does, an icon can be a great way to quickly recognize it again.
On their own, though, they're terrible. They invite confusion, even after a user has learned what they mean.
An icon in conjunction with text is a wonderful way to help users find things quickly. If I have to choose to design and interface with only an icon or only text, though, I'll go with text.
Theses icons, however, weren't as visually distinctive as others. I always had to pause for a moment to figure out which one was the spam button. I've changed back to text.
They should have colored the spam button red. I fumble a lot with these new buttons. I don't understand why the designers are against color in the new interface. It's like watching a bad CGI movie or a video game with no details where every surface looks bland gray or dark...
There was an apocryphal tale of the landscape architect being asked "These foot paths are perfect, how did you come up with that design?" And she answers, "We planted grass everywhere and then replaced where the grass had been flattened by people walking on it with foot paths."
I had a professor once who explained how this can be problematic: What about the handicapped or elderly? Will they necessarily take the same paths? How does the ideal foot path change in winter months when there is snow? Is it just based on the first person who plowed ahead and started packing the snow down? In the spring, would the path be different if it rained often and you could walk underneath a tree?
This is not to say that the story is without utility, but that it can't be a universal maxim.
Good usability doesn't try to change for different kinds of users, except in extreme cases such as expert systems. For most applications, it's best to find one approach that will work across the board.
In this case, icons, although they may look nice, should always be accompanied by text. Giving users options is an admission of failure, because it means the UI designers weren't able to come up with a single consistent solution that works.
> In this case, icons, although they may look nice, should always be accompanied by text.
So right. Icons are too ambiguous for across-the-board use as Google has been implementing.
Seems just to be a simple customizable feature. Do you think that the different whitespace options in Gmail are also an "admission of failure"? To me, they just provide different options to suit different people's visual preferences.
The whitespace options are especially grating to me. Gmail offers 3 options, all of which are poorly spaced. Configurability isn't a replacement for good design.
I'm still on the "classic" theme, and throw a bitchfit over feedback every time they try to force me into the new themes. Some of my accounts have been switched over to the new themes with no "classic" option, while others still have it available.
I'll use classic until they fix the new crap, or allow me to continue using classic indefinitely.
I just threw in the towel and switched to mutt. I'd been meaning to try it out for a while anyway, and this was exactly the opportunity I needed to motivate me.
(For anyone who's curious to try it out- I couldn't be happier, and mutt + offlineimap + mairix has ended up being the perfect combination for me... far better than Gmail web was at its best).
Why do you assume that if someone wants to use a image, something has to wrong with words?
Icons have replaced plain-text at a lot of places. The browser that I am using (and probably on your browser too), icons would have replaced: Back, Forward, Refresh. Probably because they save space or probably because they are language independent. Of course, one might have to hover on them for a second to realize what they do, the first time you try them - but next time onwards, those with a decent memory (and I am telling a limitation of icons, not discarding importance of those with poor memory), can remember what they are meant to do even when they use much lesser screen space.
The central question is that what is wrong with images (and now an option to change them to text) if it is serving a much larger audience or serving the same audience better? And at what point did it became Gmail team vs Gmail users? "Haha, they lose because they gave us the option we wanted". Mind you, for each one of us who demand something, there probably are thousands who either don't care or like the new interface. Even at this thread, I can see two people using comfortable white-space setting. Even I hated the change from classic themes to Compact; now I am comfortable. Since when did we become to averse to change?
I think you misinterpreted my response. When you ask the question "What is wrong with words?" in conjuncture with "X should be text based"; you are either genuinely asking for a reason for why would a designer chose images instead of text or you are being sarcastic.
I assumed you were genuinely asking the question; because assuming sarcasm would have meant it was more or less useless for the thread. Hence, I pointed out both pros and cons of using image icons. Additionally I was also replying to the root comment and to those who were agreeing to the sentiment.
And they're really buggy. If your window isn't wide enough for comfortable, it shifts down to the more compact version which looks terrible. Responsive ≠ cramped!
When I'm designing, I usually start with black and white, then fold in color where it seems appropriate. The monochrome design of Gmail gives me the impression that the designers didn't bother to finish the job.
Agreed. The icon buttons would have been fine had they colorized them in some manner. It's a lot easier to distinguish in that manner. I find myself confusing the "archive" and "move to" buttons far too often when working quickly.
Google, is becoming more and more like Microsoft. If they can't decide, they're essentially dumping that decision on the user in the guise of a choice.
Now all they need to do is make the settings page match the rest of the site. Notably putting the Save button at the top of the page after making everyone get used to not having to scroll around to find the Send button.
On their own, though, they're terrible. They invite confusion, even after a user has learned what they mean.
An icon in conjunction with text is a wonderful way to help users find things quickly. If I have to choose to design and interface with only an icon or only text, though, I'll go with text.