1) Great to see split view becoming a standard option, and that you can now mark an email as unread contextually, byhovering the listing item. Unfortunately the interaction is broken. It works the same way as on Outlook, and the previous Gmail lab extension (I've sent feedback to them twice, but I've never seen any changes). Emails should not be marked as read without the user actively clicking on them, that is just bad interaction design! For example if I delete an item from the inbox, the following email in the list should not be opened automatically (and marked as read). I didn't test it with search but I suspect there's problems there, as well.
2) Overall, the new layout has more empty space and looks more appealing, but I personally prefer the old "compact view" (and the new one is not as compact, which is bad). For practical reasons, I don't need my gmail interface to look nice, but I'd like to see more emails. I guess for people who don't use emails as much, the new look may be better than the old one.
3) The new "Compose" button looks much uglier than the old one. The icons next to the navigation links add clutter without adding any real value. Typography is just terrible: the same horrible font used for the logo is now being used as a header when you open emails, and I can hardly believe it because it's against all possible best practice. They are also rolling out the new font on other apps such as Google Maps and I can hardly look at it without crying. On top of that, it also allows for significantly less characters per line (4 characters less in the google maps search bar, tested on my mobile).
4) New features that I won't use (like snooze emails). In the old version, I chose to see unread emails first, and no social/promotion tabs on top, as they bring no value to me. In the new version, it defaults to tabs on top and read emails are included on top of the page. I suggest that you leave the settings as they are, rather than changing them at your will? Don't force me into using functionality that I don't need.
5) Why those top centred, out of alignment and huge check boxes, next to each listing item? I really don't get why UI elements are getting worst than in the previous version. Those check boxes just don't fit. And if capitalised Fitt's law is the argument, then I'd rather increase the clickable area around the checkboxes; you don't need to make them bigger!
6) "Smart replies"... kind of sad!
7) Good to see red notifications for potentially dangerous email.
1) Great to see split view becoming a standard option, and that you can now mark an email as unread contextually, byhovering the listing item. Unfortunately the interaction is broken. It works the same way as on Outlook, and the previous Gmail lab extension (I've sent feedback to them twice, but I've never seen any changes). Emails should not be marked as read without the user actively clicking on them, that is just bad interaction design! For example if I delete an item from the inbox, the following email in the list should not be opened automatically (and marked as read). I didn't test it with search but I suspect there's problems there, as well.
2) Overall, the new layout has more empty space and looks more appealing, but I personally prefer the old "compact view" (and the new one is not as compact, which is bad). For practical reasons, I don't need my gmail interface to look nice, but I'd like to see more emails. I guess for people who don't use emails as much, the new look may be better than the old one.
3) The new "Compose" button looks much uglier than the old one. The icons next to the navigation links add clutter without adding any real value. Typography is just terrible: the same horrible font used for the logo is now being used as a header when you open emails, and I can hardly believe it because it's against all possible best practice. They are also rolling out the new font on other apps such as Google Maps and I can hardly look at it without crying. On top of that, it also allows for significantly less characters per line (4 characters less in the google maps search bar, tested on my mobile).
4) New features that I won't use (like snooze emails). In the old version, I chose to see unread emails first, and no social/promotion tabs on top, as they bring no value to me. In the new version, it defaults to tabs on top and read emails are included on top of the page. I suggest that you leave the settings as they are, rather than changing them at your will? Don't force me into using functionality that I don't need.
5) Why those top centred, out of alignment and huge check boxes, next to each listing item? I really don't get why UI elements are getting worst than in the previous version. Those check boxes just don't fit. And if capitalised Fitt's law is the argument, then I'd rather increase the clickable area around the checkboxes; you don't need to make them bigger!
6) "Smart replies"... kind of sad!
7) Good to see red notifications for potentially dangerous email.