edesign and my experience in
highly focused mobile apps have pushed me back to Apple's native apps. To me,
the most important elements of the screen seem to pop out in Apple's apps, and
settings and controls sit thoughtfully in the background. My eyes gravitate to
the most salient elements of the screen - the mail list and the currently
opened e-mail. The compose window literally pushes to the foreground; I find
the effect focusing. You can hide screen elements you don't use!

In Gmail I feel like every control demands my attention equally. Having a big
red "compose" button might be nice for a novice, but it's irritating to me. I
search my e-mails every now and then, but not nearly enough to justify the
large search bar. Ditto with Gchat - MMS and Facebook have replaced IM as far
as I'm concerned. The "Plus Bar" at the top of the screen is useless if you,
you know, actually already have Google's Apps open most of the time (in which
case clicking anything gives you an extraneous tab). Huge swathes of my screen
are dedicated to things I barely use.

~~~
itcmcgrath
Yes!

I find the new interface has made me less efficient and distracted by the
screen elements I use the least.

~~~
saturdaysaint
I don't know why it's taken so long to get on my nerves, but yeah, going from
Gmail to native Mac apps really feels like going from a 7" netbook to a full
size laptop.

------
dylangs1030
The title is grossly inaccurate. I agree in principle with the author that
Gmail has some legitimate criticisms which can be levied against it, but the
title construes a much more serious tone than the article delivers. The first
paragraph or so of the article, the opening, doesn't give a real criticism. It
gives a short dissemination of why Gmail's theme isn't really fashionable. And
while it makes a good segue into claiming Gmail is sacrificing feature for
looks, I don't agree if that's the implicit complaint. I think Gmail can
support "heavy use" even if it doesn't delineate from the side interface and
doesn't give an entirely straightfor