Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The Iterative Web App: A new look for Gmail and Google mobile web apps

On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release new features that users have been asking for, as explained in our first post. We'd like to introduce The Iterative Webapp, a series where we will continue to release features for Gmail for mobile. Today: A new look for our buttons and toolbars.

Some of you noticed and asked us about recent changes we made to Gmail for mobile and a few of our other mobile web apps. If you use the web browser to access Gmail, Latitude, Calendar, or Tasks on your Android-powered device or iPhone, you'll see that we freshened up the look of the buttons and toolbars.

We never want the buttons and toolbars of Google apps to compete with your content; rather, they should complement them. So the headers and buttons are now darker, to better show the content of your emails and calendar entries.

We also made the all the buttons a bit larger, for easier button-tapping.

To try these apps yourself, point your mobile browser to Gmail (gmail.com), Calendar (google.com/calendar), Latitude (google.com/latitude), Tasks (gmail.com/tasks), or just go to google.com from you phone and find all these web apps under the 'more' link.

Is this an improvement? Let us know what you think.

by Charles Warren, User Experience Designer, Google Mobile
at

20 comments:

  1. NirajNovember 24, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    Is there a way to access the app via other touch-friendly browsers like Opera Mobile? I'd guess the interface would work just as well in such browsers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PedersonNovember 24, 2009 at 2:42 PM

    BlackBerry (OS 4.5+) love coming soon, right Google? :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. metakeysNovember 24, 2009 at 2:42 PM

    Definitely an improvement, thanks!

    fyi: I delete way more than I archive - any chance on giving iPhone users the choice for swiping?

    ReplyDelete
  4. DenisNovember 24, 2009 at 2:57 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownNovember 24, 2009 at 3:03 PM

    Those who are looking for offline access to Google Tasks should check out
    GeeTasks app that I wrote.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Omnipresence Wired®November 24, 2009 at 3:10 PM

    sometimes the smallest of differences are the biggest of all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. CliffNovember 24, 2009 at 3:41 PM

    is it really that hard to get some s60v5 support?

    ReplyDelete
  8. lowlightNovember 24, 2009 at 5:43 PM

    Why do I still have to spoof an iPhone useragent on my Windows Mobile to get the proper version of Google Mobile web apps?

    Windows Mobile browsers support it, why doesn't google just "allow" it to work?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alexandre BrinaNovember 25, 2009 at 12:37 AM

    I am totally out of the bus w/ my S60, sad, so sad :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownNovember 25, 2009 at 2:30 AM

    little change.

    ReplyDelete
  11. JamesNovember 25, 2009 at 5:36 AM

    I noticed the change right away. The larger buttons are a huge improvement.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Benoit DavidNovember 25, 2009 at 5:50 AM

    I too have to ask: what about Window Mobile??? I've seen apps (non-Java) with better UX for WM6, why not gMail?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jorge RNovember 25, 2009 at 8:13 AM

    Nice changes. Would LOVE to see them on my WebOS device! Any love for the Palm Pre and Pixi?

    ReplyDelete
  14. david alandíNovember 25, 2009 at 9:40 AM

    symbian s60v5 support please!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. UnknownNovember 25, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    Thanks, they look great!

    ReplyDelete
  16. chiuNovember 27, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    I've noticed the change in gmail on iPhone, googled about it and landed here. The contrast looks great. Like it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousNovember 28, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    Will I be able to get access to my contacts as well soon?

    ReplyDelete
  18. GérardNovember 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM

    no improvement for international Gmail users. this update is again US-English only. Even the old interface released in April is US only. International users are still forced to use the *very* old interface.

    ReplyDelete
  19. BrianNovember 30, 2009 at 7:39 PM

    Hopefully Android will support external bluetooth keyboards soon, so we can type out emails faster and easier.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Minnesota HotdishDecember 4, 2009 at 11:16 PM

    :( I really wish you would stop leaving Blackberry out. I love Google as much as my Blackberry and would LOVE to have some of these new features.
    So why not bring some love to Blackberry?

    ReplyDelete

You are welcome to contribute comments, but they should be relevant to the conversation. We reserve the right to remove off-topic remarks in the interest of keeping the conversation focused and engaging. Shameless self-promotion is well, shameless, and will get canned.