Today Google announced that it is working on a project to bring a new and improved Google Experience over the next several months. If anyone has visited the Google homepage or Google Maps you will have already noticed that changes have been made to the look with a black navigation bar.
Google Maps now have brightly colored point buttons and have cleaned up some to make it feel a little less cluttered. They state that links, besides the navigation bar, have now been moved to the bottom edges of the browser and the logo has been sized down some to give it a less cluttered look but as of writing this I have not yet seen this change.
Says Google:
The way people use and experience the web is evolving, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and consistent online experience—one that works no matter which Google product you’re using or what device you’re using it on. The new Google experience that we’ve begun working toward is founded on three key design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness.
•Focus: Whether you’re searching, emailing or looking for a map, the only thing you should be concerned about is getting what you want. Our job is to provide the tools and features that will get you there quickly and easily. With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we’re bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way. Even simple changes, like using bolder colors for actionable buttons or hiding navigation buttons until they’re actually needed, can help you better focus on only what you need at the moment.
•Elasticity: In the early days, there was pretty much just one way to use Google: on a desktop computer with an average-sized monitor. Over a decade later, all it takes is a look around one’s home or office at the various mobile devices, tablets, high-resolution monitors and TVs to see a plethora of ways to access the web. The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from one device to another and have a consistent visual experience. We aim to bring you this flexibility without sacrificing style or usefulness.
•Effortlessness: Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. We want to keep our look simple and clean, but behind the seemingly simple design, use new technologies like HTML5, WebGL and the latest, fastest browsers to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you.
From my observations of the look so far it appears that Google may have gotten a slight touch of the Microsoft Metro UI fever with the appearance as the look gives off that clean Metro UI effect when looking at it!
