69
votes
Accepted
Why is Google using a (new) 2 step Gmail sign in process?
As per the official Google announcement, the reasoning behind this change is to try out methods which would complement new password authentication methods. To quote the post
Today, you sign in to ...
- 43.6k
63
votes
Accepted
Why do some websites (including Google) trim whitespaces in passwords?
Good observation.
In my experience this happens for a number of reasons, some intentional and some unintentional.
Intentional reasons to trim whitespace:
Users often cut and paste passwords (yes, ...
- 40.3k
34
votes
Accepted
Google UX flaw? switching placement of Videos and Images
They arrange the items depending on what you search for.
I.E. searching for 'Tax' is likely to return many News results, so that is shown alongside 'web':
Searching for 'Mexico Flag' is likely ...
JonW♦
- 36.9k
28
votes
Why is Google using a (new) 2 step Gmail sign in process?
Official google explanation aside (as mentioned in the other answer), there is probably another work at play which goes unmentioned - using UX as stick/carrot method to promote desired behavior.
Note ...
- 389
19
votes
Accepted
Purposefully obscure user interface design to encourage behaviours
These are called 'Dark patterns' and these can be used in many different ways to influence users behaviour.
Social networks as you mentioned put the logout button in a separate menu, Facebook in ...
- 957
14
votes
Accepted
Why is the Google Search Results page not responsive?
Responsive design is best practice, except for the most high-end websites
Responsive, mobile-first design gets you the most “bang for the buck” for most web sites or applications. Effectively you can ...
- 3,851
13
votes
Accepted
Does Google filter on auto suggestion to avoid causing offence?
Google actually removes autosuggestions for specific searches.
In which cases?
Searchengineland writes:
Were things being removed?
Yes, and for these specific reasons, Google says:
Hate ...
- 2,302
11
votes
Different styling for different tooltips on a single page?
This is a bug with the Google UI, and not intentional.
You were right to notice the distinction, but it shouldn't be used as any kind of example of good design.
As of now (March 2015), Google is in ...
- 40.3k
8
votes
Accepted
What is this Google Apps popout menu called?
What's it called?
I'm not sure if a canonical name exists. But here are some terms that help describe it...
It is a type of menu. (Google Material Design: Menus)
In iOS and Bootstrap parlance it is a ...
- 412
7
votes
Accepted
Is there any reason Google does not provide any filter beyond bare search bar?
The Google home page is simple and uncluttered.
But, once you search for something - you can filter:
Are we missing something - or are you?
- 70.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Font 'Roboto' mandatory in Google's material design?
Google is using 'Material Design' to give their vast number of different services a unified look and feel – so for google designers using Roboto is mandatory because it's part of their design by ...
- 3,220
7
votes
Font 'Roboto' mandatory in Google's material design?
Not mandatory. But highly recommended.
Roboto was introduced and standardized by Google for supporting devices of different dpi to have readability and legibility of fonts.
You can see that many ...
- 484
7
votes
Accepted
How to manage scrolling issues of a full-width embedded google map in a webpage?
Getting in the trap of scrolling map area instead of page scrolling is definitely bad experience. Still current solution looks overcomplicated and provides a barrier to interaction.
The design looks ...
- 22.6k
7
votes
Google Chrome's setting/option icon a variation of the hamburger menu?
As a matter of fact I'm quite sure that between the wrench and the kebab icon there was a hamburger.
Either way, the most likely reason for the icon is consistency . This kebab menu icon is the same ...
- 32.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Why Google Search bar and logo is not vertically center in large screen?
As mentioned by @locationunknown in the comments, the vertical position doesn't change when the window is resized.
But to answer your question. I believe it is because Google doesn't want you to ...
- 1,050
6
votes
Different styling for different tooltips on a single page?
I'm pretty sure it's because Drive is developped by another team than the team who's working on the Google account canvas. More a question of schedule/production rather than UX/UI thought I guess.
- 442
6
votes
Why does Google Drive use a dialog for renaming files?
Well, I tried to get the answer from the design team (UENO. Created the interface, the renaming part is as it is since then), They simply can't answer it.
I believe that renaming in a modal doesn't ...
6
votes
Chips and Button Sizes in Google Material Design
Based on the Layout & Technology section of the Accessibility page, the tap area continues to be, at minimum, 48x48dp, thanks to padding:
Touch targets are the parts of the screen that respond ...
- 822
5
votes
What to highlight in autosuggest options?
Google doesn't just do stuff for the sake of doing it
Highlighting what I typed over and over again doesn't really add any value while highlighting the differences helps a user quickly find what they ...
- 15.8k
5
votes
In Google Maps, why did Google use back arrow icon instead of "X" close for search results list when its clearly a layer on top of the main interface?
It seems like you're asking two things:
Why was the ← used instead of ×?
Why is this search bar z-indexed above the other content?
RE: Question 1
In Material Design, × represents "clear" in text ...
- 1,129
5
votes
Why does Google's main page have such a modest design?
This is well discussed in a brilliant book: Marissa Mayer and the fight to save Yahoo! by Nicholas Carlson.
Google won over Yahoo in Search because Yahoo's majority of income came from their ...
- 6,295
5
votes
Is the following approach better for mobiles? Missing 'save' option in Google Keep
This has been around for quite some time now and I can think of one app that does this very well. Word Online accessible through OneDrive looks like the following. You get a saving notification and a ...
- 54.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Why has Google increased radius of UI elements?
There's an interview about this redesign published on the Google Chrome Blog.
Alex Ainslie, Chrome's lead designer states:
We’re introducing a major refresh on Chrome across all platforms, which ...
- 19.2k
4
votes
What are the advantages and disadvantages of "minimal" design?
What a great question, Niklas. I'm a huge fan of minimalism so I took a chance to write an elaborate answer.
First, I beg to differ: the art movement and the design style are not the same thing.
“...
- 4,893
4
votes
Accepted
Embedded Google Maps or static stylized map
Coming from a cartography background, I agree with you in a sense. Some of those maps are useless, however some are quite useful. Let's take a look at a couple examples.
The first is something like ...
- 3,022
4
votes
Accepted
Why does Google remove special characters from search?
I suspect it largely has something to do with the fact that those special operators are used for specific Google query purposes, and take precedence over code notation. From Google's own documentation:...
- 307
4
votes
Accepted
Google Fonts within enterprise applications?
This technically isn't the right place to ask the question... but all fonts offered by Google are open source fonts. You can freely use it, embed it or modify it to your heart's content.
All of the ...
- 8,481
4
votes
Accepted
Why does Google add o's to their name to signify result pages?
Few reasons;
"O" is part of their name and during the early years, they needed
gimmicks like these to help users memories their brand. That "job" has been done well and is no longer needed though.
...
- 4,921
4
votes
The "Hey Google" interaction - Dark UX Pattern?
2) Can this be termed as dark UX?
Short Answer: No.
Why?
Because Dark Pattern is a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with ...
- 3,540
4
votes
Why does front page of Google.com give no feedback when trying to search when nothing's entered?
Just a hunch on my part - I have no involvement in Google: It's to emphasize the simplicity of the interface.
Google's homepage was designed to be super simple. At the time that was a bold move ...
- 499
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible