Simpler Gmail
Michael Leggett, lead designer of Gmail from 2008-2012
“It’s like Lucky Charms got spewed all over the screen,” he says to me, as he scrolls through his inbox. It’s true. Folders, contacts, Google apps like Docs and Drive–and at least half a dozen notifications–all clutter Gmail at any given moment. And of course, there’s that massive Gmail logo that sits in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Just in case you forgot that you just typed “gmail.com” into your browser bar three seconds ago. “Go look at any desktop app and tell me how many have a huge fucking logo in the top left,” rants Leggett. “C’mon. It’s pure ego, pure bullshit. Drop the logo. Give me a break.”
– Fast Company, “The former lead designer of Gmail just fixed Gmail on his own”
So he made this plugin for Chrome and Firefox that cuts out all the terrible visual noise of Gmail. I’m never uninstalling this one.
And while I’m on the subject, who signed off on this disaster?
Because we all know that the only way to attact attention to a UI element is to adorn it with a big blue goddamn fucking tumor.