Google Interface Designs: Welcome to Dullsville

Google Gmail for the iPhone may have had just an hour or two in the sunlight before Google pulled it, but that was more than enough time for people to decide they hated it. The dislike didn’t discriminate. Users hated the feel, the lack of functionality (only one Gmail account?!) and the buginess. For me, though, I couldn’t stand the look of the thing. So stark, boxy and cold.

Google will solve the feature and bug issues and soon enough the Gmail app will be back on iOS devices. What Google is unlikely to change, though, is the design. Black, white and boring. What happened to Google’s signature use of color, its sense of impish fun? Its name is literally built out of five, bright primary colors. This is the company that regularly brings us wonderfully imaginative Google Doodle logos — which all do wild things with that simple, yet attractive logo. It’s the same company that has some of the most entertaining corporate offices I have ever seen (I took a tour, I know).

Yet, something is happening in the halls of Google. Google’s new design language has, essentially, two words: black and white.

It’s not just this new HTML5-based Gmail that is awash in two-tone colors or that brings sharp edges to Apple’s always curved world. I’m reading Steve Jobs’s biography right now and learned that he hated — HATED — corners. Everything had to be curved. He was obsessed with chamfers. Take a look at your iPhone or iPad and you’ll see that design sensibility. Google, though, is going the other way.

Gmail for the iPhone is all hard lines of black, white and gray. There are thin lines and black bars. The icons are simply reverses on their black backgrounds.There’s just a tiny bit of color and impishness in there, like the use of a 3.5-inch floppy icon for “Save.” Otherwise, it’s the culmination of a trend that’s been running through all of Google’s products for months and accelerating in recent days. The new Google Reader, for example, is white, with gray accents and black type. It’s more open than the old version, but somehow less friendly and inviting.

This week, Google also waved the magic wand of starkness over Gmail for the desktop. No more color, no more bounding boxes. It’s super stark and seems ready to slide apart. If I were making it into a game, I’d put it on a tablet and use the accelerometer to judge just how flat you’re holding the screen. If it tips one way or the other, part of Gmail’s interface simply slides off. Google News was probably the first of Google’s many services to get the decolorization makeover. It used to look a tiny bit like a newspaper layout, but no more. Google Apps are no better. The menu bar in Google+ is pretty much the same. Icons are gray, the discussions float in a sea of white and gray lines. When I do see a colorful icon in any of Google’s products I’m now tempted to throw it a lifeline.

Seriously, who is Google’s interface designer these days, and why has he decided to drain all the fun and life out of every single Google product? Some might argue that this is a return to Google’s roots. Its homepage is still essentially just its logo, a search box and an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search option. I’ve always appreciated that Google didn’t junk that up, but I have grown accustomed to Google’s different looks within its standalone apps and services. Now someone is cracking the whip and shoving them all into monochromatic shape.

Bali and Lombok

Bali and Lombok are the best known of the holiday islands of Indonesia, and are readily accessible from Australia and Japan, their principal tourism markets. Bali is separated from Java to the west by only a narrow stretch of water, whereas Lombok to the east is more remote and less developed. Bali has a long-established reputation as a ‘tropical paradise’, where a seemingly gentle, artistic people live in harmony with their environment. However, with tourist arrivals exceeding 2 million a year in the late 1990s – compared to less than 30 000 in 1969 – it has become difficult to sustain this image. Unlike most of Indonesia, the two islands were relatively unaffected by the turmoil that followed the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 and the troubles in East Timor. In fact, the fall in value of the rupiah against Western currencies meant that Bali became a value-for-money destination for many tourists. Lombok has benefited from Bali’s popularity, and tourism development has been rapid since the mid-1980s.

The events of ‘Black October’ 2002 dealt a severe blow to the Balinese economy, which had become over-dependent on tourism. Matters were made worse by the reaction of some Western governments to the threat of terrorism; Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for example, issued an advisory against travel to the island, which was not lifted until June 2004. In the meantime, hundreds of craft workshops and other small tourism-related businesses had closed down through lack of orders, while hotel occupancy rates slumped far below the 50 per cent needed to cover operating costs. Many Balinese were forced to return to their farming villages in the face of widespread unemployment in the tourism sector.

Australians were the main victims of the bombings, and not surprisingly the fall in demand was greatest in the inclusive tour market catering for middle income Australians. The Japanese market was more resilient; this accounts for the largest number of tourist arrivals, but with a short length of stay averaging less than a week. Young Japanese tourists find the relaxed lifestyle of Bali a welcome escape from the social conventions and conformity prevailing in their own country. The backpacking youth travel market, and what might be called ‘five star’ tourism at the other extreme, already seem to be recovering from the crisis of 2002. Domestic tourism has increased, with the encouragement of the Indonesian government.