I feel pretty!
May 7, 2008 1:45 PM   Subscribe

Gmail Redesigned is a really slick CSS makeover for - you guessed - Gmail. It uses the Stylish Firefox add-on. (So yes, this is something you would need a computer, firefox, and gmail to care about.)
posted by Wolfdog (64 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Gmail redesigned doesn't look pretty to me. What I'd really like is for better behaviour while it's loading. If I go to gmail and click on a label I usually end up in the wrong label because the chat box loads up after the label box does and ends up shifting it.
posted by substrate at 1:50 PM on May 7, 2008


I'm not going to dispute the fact that this design could be considered a more attractive interface for Gmail (although to my eye it isn't).

However, the default Gmail interface is designed with more than just prettiness in mind; Google design interfaces which balance clarity with the absolute minimum of bandwidth usage. By this measure (and also in terms of another important criterion, accessibility), the original interface is a far better design. And try getting that add-on to work on your Wii or your Blackberry....
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:53 PM on May 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Well, the little tiny image they have of the new look on their site did very little to persuade me to give this a try. However, Stylish actually seems to work with Firefox 3beta5, and so I was encouraged to try it anyway.

It's kind of pretty and kind of neat. I guess.
posted by kbanas at 1:53 PM on May 7, 2008


I'm not a fan of that design (it's all pointless gradient sizzle added on top of GMail's plain and simple elegance). But it does make me wish Google would allow custom stylesheets, in general, for Google Apps. Being able to customize the logo to match your org is a small step, but a custom CSS would be a whole lot nicer. That way you could tweak a little (font size? background color?) or a lot at your leisure.

(Needing to add a particular third-party widget to one specific browser so that you can hack it in your own browser doesn't cut it, no.)
posted by rokusan at 1:55 PM on May 7, 2008


(Needing to add a particular third-party widget to one specific browser so that you can hack it in your own browser doesn't cut it, no.)
aka "The MetaFilter Model"
posted by Wolfdog at 1:57 PM on May 7, 2008 [3 favorites]


I welcome this change. Thanks for the tip. Stylish sorta broke my hulu.com popouts though :(
posted by hellphish at 1:58 PM on May 7, 2008


I've been using it for a few weeks... probably about 2 months. It works well enough, and I think it looks better than the default. I tweaked it a bit, since I was having trouble telling when a email thread got a new message, but it seems to work great. And I have no qualms about add-on stylesheets, though I would imagine others not so familiar with css would be a little more wary.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:00 PM on May 7, 2008


It looks like a Windows Live theme.
posted by Artw at 2:00 PM on May 7, 2008 [2 favorites]


I guess it's a little less ugly now. Thanks.
posted by cowbellemoo at 2:03 PM on May 7, 2008


I really like it. Thanks.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:03 PM on May 7, 2008


I wish gmail had a little more whitespace. Just thought I'd share that.
posted by rusty at 2:04 PM on May 7, 2008


(Personally, most of my email time is in PINE, so glitzy high style isn't a major priority. I had a student in here who was obviously distracted by my pine window and kept glancing it with an apparent and growing mix of suspicion and horror. Finally: "Yes?" "I don't know how you read that." "What do you mean?" "It's so... it's... I mean... it's all text.")
posted by Wolfdog at 2:08 PM on May 7, 2008 [9 favorites]


At first I was excited by this, but then I tried it. So, the fancy CSS really does nothing but change the colors?

meh.

Now, if someone could provide a stylish/greasemonkey/whatever add-on that would let me see nothing but the unread e-mails in gmail (or at least bring them to the top). That would be a little bit of magic that would greatly interest me.
posted by oddman at 2:19 PM on May 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oh PINE, even in 97 (when I first used it), it was faster than webmail.
posted by drezdn at 2:21 PM on May 7, 2008


See, for me, a pretty computing experience is when I bring my laptop to that one coffeeshop by the river. I'll happily spend all day in a black-and-white terminal window if I can look up now and again and watch the water ripple.

Then again, I'm also that guy at work who would rather stare out the window than decorate his cubicle.

I suspect that being the cubicle-decorating type must be pretty nice. If a couple calendars or a pretty mail client were enough to cheer my cranky ass up, that would be awesome.
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:21 PM on May 7, 2008


So, I just installed this. It's noticeably slower now. That combined with smaller fonts makes this useless for me.
posted by ryanhealy at 2:22 PM on May 7, 2008


Other browsers do usercss, and some of them got there before the Firefox plugin.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 2:24 PM on May 7, 2008


This is an argument against allowing users to skin interfaces.

Horrifying.
posted by basicchannel at 2:29 PM on May 7, 2008


Barf.
posted by Krrrlson at 2:34 PM on May 7, 2008


I like it. Thanks!!
posted by mike0221 at 2:37 PM on May 7, 2008


I like it as well. This is by far the best user style I've ever seen. I usually just use them to remove extraneous crap (ad sidebars, etc.) from websites I visit frequently and move various elements around, I've never seen one that totally redesigns the site. Most of the time I access GMail over IMAP with Thunderbird, but this will be nice for a quick login to the web interface.

Has anyone made a cool user style for Metafilter?
posted by DecemberBoy at 2:47 PM on May 7, 2008


You say "really slick", I say "an affront to all that is good in this world". Let's call the whole thing off.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:48 PM on May 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Are gradients every which way still 'cutting edge' design?
posted by echo target at 2:56 PM on May 7, 2008


"Google's design team is either incredibly lazy or extremely concerned with making sure old people, and people still using Netscape can check their email."

The gradient-on-black thing just makes the UI look like a kid's toy, or something designed with Microsoft aesthetics in mind.

I must be an old person!

(Wolfdog, wouldn't it be cool to slap a green-phosphor skin on gmail, with, like, all that text?)
posted by mwhybark at 3:00 PM on May 7, 2008


aw, booo for the font style unrendering!

(my last line was all green and fixed-width-y)
posted by mwhybark at 3:01 PM on May 7, 2008


Here's another one, FWIW.
posted by mwhybark at 3:03 PM on May 7, 2008


I think those gradients are yucky, but I think the concept of this is neat.
posted by dirtdirt at 3:13 PM on May 7, 2008


Really slick?
I'd say really ick.
posted by Kabanos at 3:19 PM on May 7, 2008


Thumbs down on the aesthetic, but I appreciate the effort involved.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:28 PM on May 7, 2008


It makes Gmail look like a standard vBulletin or Invision forum theme.
posted by junesix at 3:32 PM on May 7, 2008


Wolfdog, wouldn't it be cool to slap a green-phosphor skin on gmail, with, like, all that text?
Dude I would be like totally whoa. (I prefer amber to green, but the basic premise is solid.)
posted by Wolfdog at 3:34 PM on May 7, 2008


Bad, bad, bad. All Web 2.0 prettiness at the expense of usability.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:08 PM on May 7, 2008


What possessed them to take the "m" from "Gmail" that looks like an envelope, replace it with a conventional "m," and put the envelope "m" at the end of "Gmail" so that it looks like "Gmailm"?
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:58 PM on May 7, 2008


At least they didn't refer to it as "hack". Maybe there's still hope.
posted by Gary at 4:59 PM on May 7, 2008


Why is Vista black?
posted by KokuRyu at 5:15 PM on May 7, 2008


This is actually the worst of the many Gmail skins I've seen. I can't believe they wasted all that time and effort on making it harder to read email in Gmail, and making Gmail look uglier.
posted by jack_mo at 5:32 PM on May 7, 2008


Not supported with the "Better Gmail 2" or the "Remember The Milk" extensions.

FAIL.

That and it's rather unattractive and certainly not an improvement.
posted by blastrid at 5:37 PM on May 7, 2008


But I think we can all agree - Google's design team is either incredibly lazy or extremely concerned with making sure old people, and people still using Netscape can check their email.
I disagree.

And, btw, there's not a damn thing wrong with making things work on older browsers. Don't be browserist, and perhaps your shitty sites with their cutting-edge javascript libraries won't crash even recent browsers.
posted by bonaldi at 6:42 PM on May 7, 2008


Anyone know of an extension that will make my Gmail chat windows look like I'm typing to an email in Outlook or an Excel file?
posted by decoherence at 7:00 PM on May 7, 2008


Actually, there seem to be a lot of gmail tweak options.
posted by zardoz at 7:11 PM on May 7, 2008


Now, if someone could provide a stylish/greasemonkey/whatever add-on that would let me see nothing but the unread e-mails in gmail (or at least bring them to the top). That would be a little bit of magic that would greatly interest me.

search for: +label:unread +label:inbox
posted by Edible Energy at 7:23 PM on May 7, 2008 [2 favorites]


Thanks, all you cranky folk for making me feel like a kid on your lawn. 'Cause I love it love it love it -- on ur LAWN! (And I'm well beyond the need-to-see-your-id age, thank you).

*dashes away to play in the sprinklers*
posted by treepour at 8:39 PM on May 7, 2008


Cleaner is better. More whitespace, good.
posted by gsb at 9:15 PM on May 7, 2008


I would be happier with gmail if the boys would prevent the flood of spam instead of filing it in my accounts. Incredibly busy or incredibly lazy?
posted by Cranberry at 9:35 PM on May 7, 2008


I would be happier with gmail if the boys would prevent the flood of spam instead of filing it in my accounts. Incredibly busy or incredibly lazy?

Really? I've been using GMail since it was invite-only beta, and I hardly get any spam. A look in the spam folder reveals a hundred or more ENLARGE UR PEN1S and Chinese warez site ads per day, but rarely does one make it into my inbox. If GMail's built-in spam filtering doesn't work, try using it via IMAP with Thunderbird and using its junk-filtering features, which allows you to mark spam as junk and uses your input to predictively mark future spam. Or if you keep getting the same spam, you can write a rule to send it all straight to the trash based on subject, sender, etc.
posted by DecemberBoy at 10:54 PM on May 7, 2008


I find the polarized responses interesting. Can someone post a high-res screenshot of this so I don't have to install it myself?
posted by aqhong at 11:25 PM on May 7, 2008


DecemberBoy - that is exactly what I am talking about. Tons of spam in gmail accounts, occasional spam in Comcast accounts, none ever in Yahoo! accounts. It can be done; surely Yahoo! is not the possessor of some arcane spam prevention secret that others can't duplicate.
posted by Cranberry at 11:38 PM on May 7, 2008


Never mind, I just checked Google Images. I'm with Artw, it looks like a next-gen Hotmail.

Can I have an Apple-redesigned Gmail instead? Thanks.
posted by aqhong at 11:40 PM on May 7, 2008


Wow. How ugly.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:56 PM on May 7, 2008


I agree. That looks horrible. the standard Gmail has a simplicity that is sorely lacking in other apps. why fix it if its not broke?
posted by mary8nne at 12:41 AM on May 8, 2008


No one redesigning metafilter? C'mon I want this site to look like MSN Live too!

No, seriously, stilish might be an interesting tool to see some of the metafiler redesign done for that contest awhile ago.
posted by darkripper at 1:21 AM on May 8, 2008


From the screen shots they seem to have put a load of gradient shit over the navigation section and made the fonts smaller while making each line of text take up more vertical space so you actually see less data (the chat window disappears, fewer emails are shown) on the screen at once. A giant leap backwards.
posted by dickasso at 5:41 AM on May 8, 2008


The whole point (I think) of letting you see the filtered spam if you want is to make sure you're not missing emails that were accidentally filed there. It really (as in almost never) happens to me anymore, but it's nice to know I can check.
posted by drezdn at 5:42 AM on May 8, 2008


Can I have an Apple-redesigned Gmail instead? Thanks.

There is a skin floating about that does a pretty good job of making Gmail look like Apple Mail, but I'm having trouble finding it. Anyone know the one I'm talking about?
posted by jack_mo at 6:59 AM on May 8, 2008


this is a prime example for what's wrong with the firefox community. it just doesn't look good, it just doesn't feel right. programmers (usually) can't design and when they try, a webpage ends up looking like a hippie pooped crayons.

I like gmail as it is - simple and clear.
posted by krautland at 7:21 AM on May 8, 2008



Can I have an Apple-redesigned Gmail instead? Thanks.

I'd like one that looked similar to pre-Ajax .Mac webmail, but not like Apple Mail, which has gotten uglier and uglier since 10.3
posted by bonaldi at 9:05 AM on May 8, 2008


There's a stylish script for an Apple-redesigned Google reader, but I have yet to see one for gmail.
posted by nushustu at 10:41 AM on May 8, 2008


Oops, that's what I was thinking of nushustu. Sorry to get your hopes up aqhong.
posted by jack_mo at 11:14 AM on May 8, 2008


aqhong, jack_mo, how's this?
posted by mwhybark at 2:59 PM on May 8, 2008


Or this?
posted by mwhybark at 3:01 PM on May 8, 2008


"search for: +label:unread +label:inbox" - Edible Energy

OMG! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, (really, I can't thank you enough).
posted by oddman at 6:37 PM on May 8, 2008


Mashable recently had a great collection Gmail Makeovers that shouldn't be overlooked.
posted by msaleem at 2:08 AM on May 9, 2008


If I could somehow overlook those after seeing them, I would.
posted by aqhong at 2:49 AM on May 9, 2008


I've been using this skin/style for a few weeks now at least, and I really love it. I'd like someone to make the same skin for google reader. Anyone, anyone....?
posted by trixare4kids at 9:37 AM on June 4, 2008


« Older What Gets Left Behind   |   Playsforsuren't Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments