Gmail upcoming new interface and the constantly blowing wind of change

It’s the usual dilemma. Would you rather stick to the current version of the application you are using, regardless of weaknesses and shortcomings, or are you willing — after taking a deep breath of course — to make another effort and learn new ways, therefore being able to take advantage of the improved version?

It happens all the time. It happened with Microsoft’s Windows 8 whose user interface was a frank departure from Windows 7, and it all seems like it is going to happen again with what is the most widely used and trusted free e-mail service, Google’s gmail.

Information found on the web tells of a drastically redesigned interface, not just minor cosmetics here and there. The display should be more dynamic, less static and bring increased comfort of use, with enhanced message sorting and “flagging” or star pinning, for example. Web rumours also have it that the redesign will contribute to a more unified interface for gmail, from desktop to mobile platforms.

However, this article is not about the detailed features of the upcoming gmail interface. Besides, no date has yet been announced for the actual implementation of the new gmail look. This is more about the balance between the rate of re-learning and software improvement. Simply put, when is it worth taking the plunge for a change?

There’s another question, perhaps a more criticalone. What is the extent of change we can tolerate for a product we are already familiar with and that we have been using for a long time? Do we want to go through huge changes that may be so drastic that the re-learning process will be truly painful?

In general the industry does not care much about how much we suffer and spend time re-learning. Changes occur all too frequently. I’d like, for example — in my dreams — to see a major product like Microsoft’s Windows remain unchanged for 10 years or so; but of course this is but a personal wish.

Whereas versions of a product such as Adobe Photoshop have usually managed to take us smoothly, almost painlessly, from one to another over time, thanks to smartly planned, arranged and organised changes, the level of redesign from Windows 7 to Windows 8 was really too much for most of us, and is still making waves within the IT community, almost two years on after Win8 was released in August 2012.

On the other hand, and talking about Adobe, although the company keeps releasing updates for its Acrobat Reader at an alarming rate, these updates are absolutely transparent to the user, for they only involve internal, technical changes, none or very few in the user interface or in the way we run Acrobat. So despite the annoyance, this is a kind of update we can live with. Besides, and in ascending order of magnitude and importance, there are updates, upgrades and then there’s completely new design.

Alongside medicine, information technology is the fastest changing field, not to mention that IT itself impacts the speed of change of virtually all other domains, including medicine of course, since they all are, more less, affected by progress achieved in IT. There is little doubt that overall we all benefit from the change, even if we have the sometimes justified impression that the reason for it is more commercial than technological. Surely you can’t blame software companies for wanting to make money.

Whether it’s often a hurricane or by moments just a gentle breeze, the wind of change will continue to blow on information technology and it’s not a bad thing. We just have to accept it and to live with it. I can’t wait to see gmail’s new look!