This is pretty much the definition of a first world problem, but I know I'm not the only one who thinks the new Gmail UI for the iPhone isn't all its cracked up to be. They moved basic transactions like reading and archiving messages into asynchronous calls, and it creates this incredibly disjointed and sluggish user experience. Case in point, archiving a message.
- Steps to reproduce: view a message, touch the archive button.
- Expected result: user is returned to the message list, with that message removed from the list.
- Actual result: user is returned to the message list, with that message still in the message list. After several seconds a banner message appears stating that "The conversation has been marked as read." And then, after several more seconds (longer depending on the speed of your connection, on EDGE I've seen this take at least 10 seconds), another banner message apperas stating "The conversation has been archived."
Look, I'm a big fan of asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Just like I'm a big fan of HTML and CSS. And heck, HTTP for that matter. But the team made the technology they used the lede of the story, which leads me to believe that the requirement wasn't "make Gmail faster for iPhone users, especially on EDGE," but something like "port UI to AJAX."
On the plus side, IMAP setup is now much easier, so maybe I'll switch to that.
You're not the only one. While I've always used Google IMAP on the phone (at least since it became available) I'm a heavy user of Google Reader and the "new" UX is definitely a step backward.
Issues I've encountered so far:
* It's slower overall--either on Edge or Wifi
* Clicking a feed item open sometimes drops you toward the end of the feed, not at the top (you've then got to scroll up)
* Feed items are sometimes sized larger than the iPhone's window width
The old design was pretty close to what I've got here to begin with, it was faster, and it didn't have any of the width errors I've now seen a number of times.
Still better than any other online feed reader, but is the first time I've had to regularly complain about Google Reader overall since they redesigned the sucker a while back.
Posted by: Anthony Baker | Jan 16, 2008 at 05:13 PM
What's interesting is that I think you can still reach the "not quite newest" version of Reader (i.e. the one without the blue global Google navstrip along the top) by visiting http://www.google.com/reader/m/ -- I've bookmarked http://www.google.com/reader/m/tags to go right to my tags list and it bypasses the blue navstrip thing. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they figure that out and redirect through the front door somehow to add that navstrip back in and the inline the rest of the app...
But yeah -- definitely frustrating. It's almost like they're trying too hard.
Posted by: Michael Sippey | Jan 16, 2008 at 05:24 PM