How would you organize the Gmail menu?
Have you ever wondered what Google’s designers / user interface specialists think about when they’re designing the menus on Googles services?
I have because I’m a massive Google Reader fan and am always surprised by how awkward it is to get to from other Google services (without using browser add-ons or greasemonkey scripts.)
Just look at where Google Reader is placed on the menu from within Gmail.
The menus aren’t organized by with any sense that I can discern. It’s not a simple alphabetic layout and the menus obviously aren’t organized by popularity of each respective product because there is now way you could convince me that Google Patents is a more popular destination that Google Reader.
If, (and how I wish) I was in charge I’d probably organize the first few after Gmail as:
Calendar, Documents, Reader, Photos, Web
The rest could follow in order of usage popularity .
How would you organize the menu if you had the chance?
I use Outlook for my emails, because it’s the only way I seem to be able to filter incoming Gmail. I have everything that comes through automatically archive (I hear the privacy advocated slapping their foreheads already) and an extension on Firefox that lets me search Gmail from my search bar. The only time I actually go into Gmail is when I have to find an old email.
I’ve actually been using the new IMAP features of Gmail within outlook. The filters of Gmail combines with everywhere synchronization of 25+ email accounts is just so easy that I can’t resist…
What issues are you having with filtering Gmail? Maybe I can help?
Well, if they can’t make the top menu “personalisable” for your Google ID, I’d have to agree with you, Reader should be on the top bar. Personally, I’d swap it with Photos – on the basis that I want to access Gmail, Reader and Docuemnts several times a day, but I tend to only access Photos (although in reality I use Flickr) when I’ve got a set of photos to upload.
First of all, and the most important part is, IF you were in charge of Google you would have sold it and be sitting in a Vineyard somewhere taking a toke off a jug of Chianti. OH, wait, that is what the developers of Google were doing when they came up with this menu of services….
With Outlook I set my filters so things go into labeled folders by where they are coming from- blog comments, email lists, PR people I converse with regularly, Cre8buzz, etc. At a glance I can see if I have emails, how many, and where they are coming from. I haven’t yet seen how to set up folders in Gmail, just labeling, and I don’t *think* you can set filters on that the way you can with desktop email. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!
@Scot True.. True
@Sara The labels system allows you to do similar within GMail as I have 25 different lables on mine. It works best, I think, when using IMAP because the labels are then displayed as folders withing Outlook and my mail is always the same if I’m accessing it from the web, one of my desktop machines or my laptop.
Here’s a link to more info on both labels and IMAP.
I see that the “poke in the side” worked; that is a veritable deluge after something of a drought.
@Bedrooms – Sure did
Back on your original question – to me, the link organization *mostly* makes sense. It looks like the first three are grouped related to office/work functions (Gmail, Calendar, and Documents). Of the remaining choices, Groups is probably the most popular destination and thus has a “top shelf” spot. I’d say their pushing Photos (Picasa) on the regular Gmail accounts because most of these are secondary or home email addresses and the users would be fairly likely to have an interest in that tool. The “more” dropdown list appears to be alphabetical to me.
And by “regular Gmail accounts” I mean as opposed to Google Apps accounts which have a different navigation structure. Here’s a screenshot.