After Google Search and Google Maps, it's time for Google Calendar to switch to a Google+ interface. The new design is a lot cleaner, even if
no important feature was removed. "Quick add" is now available if you click the arrow next to the "Create button" (not very intuitive), "Print" and "Refresh" are now buttons instead of links, the month view below the "Create" button can be collapsed, "Save" and "Discard" buttons are only displayed at the top of the page.
"Right now, the changes are just cosmetic and have not affected the way Calendar works. You can choose to turn off the new look by clicking the gear icon and choosing
Use the classic look (you can turn it back on by going to the gear icon and choosing
Try the new look),"
explains Google. Obviously, at some point, Google Calendar will integrate with Google+ and we'll see even more changes.
{ Thanks, Andrew. }
Yeah... I just saw it for the first time (still puking... ugliest POS yet from Google).
ReplyDeleteHate it too. Switched to classic look within two minutes. Yikes, who designed this?
ReplyDeleteWay too much real estate consumed up top, makes you scroll too much in the week/day view to see morning and evening events. Switched to classical view.
ReplyDeleteI'm only getting this on my newest account, not on my older (personal) account. There's no way to switch to it on that one. Is it getting rolled out in phases?
ReplyDeleteLike others said, too much space is wasted with the header and pointless padding on all of the elements. Also, I miss having a unified color header on every event, with a custom color of the inside for every calendar. I used this to color code events (color coded by calendar as well as event type). I rely on this visual encoding a lot, but now, we only have the custom color inside, and no header for events (this is in week view).
ReplyDeleteToo large logo and buttons on the top of the page.
ReplyDeleteOn the small screens looks awfull because of the lack of the usefull space.
Where did half of my screen go?
ReplyDeleteNice look, may be some bugs gone with the old look!
ReplyDeletehttp://goo.gl/Vt5Fw
My default calendar view is month. Although "Today" is highlighted, it is with the palest grey available and is for practical purposes invisible. I wish there were an option to set the colour used for this highlight. It isn't as bad in weekly view.
ReplyDeleteI also have the task view open on the right hand said. the juxtaposition of this with the modern and sleek calendar interface looks very odd.
total makeover...across all pages in google....
ReplyDeleteWhy is the "Search Calendars" bar so huge??
ReplyDeletei LOVE it! :-D
ReplyDeleteI'm in love with the new design!
ReplyDeleteNice with a new look, but it needs some work.
ReplyDeleteThe color of the ordinary events are too bright and the color repeating events are too similar to the ordinary color. It is hard to see the difference now.
Font size is too large. Now I can only see 10-11 events on each day compared to 15 with the old look.
there just is no contrast in the colors! As it has been said before, it is really hard to see "today" when displaying a week or a month....it´s light gray on lighter gray..
ReplyDeleteAlso really strange: the settings pages have no color at all... those are not really important, but it is really tough to see the different lines now...
I can NOT tell what day today is.
ReplyDeletewhy can't it remember the last calendar you added an event to? it is bloody stupid you have to set the calendar each time
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love it. I hated the way Google Calendar used to look.
ReplyDeleteWayyyyyyy to much whitespce, especially the left margin. Why have Google gone black and white (and orangey/red), it kinda sucks.
ReplyDelete@funambulator: buy a decent screen. One that you can actually tell the difference between gray and white.
ReplyDeleteAnd while we're at it, maybe we can drink from the fountain of youth.
DeleteWhy don't Google never fix the bugs regarding ISO-8601 date format that has existed since the beginning? The saved settings for the selected date format isn't respected, it only looks good in "event details" and in "4 weeks" layout. Most write dates as year-month-day, like 2011-10-12, or in short form 11-10-12. Now it's only "works" in US, most of the modern world use ISO-standards since long ago.
ReplyDeleteGoogle can hardly expect to attract business users outside USA, to Google Apps before they follow normal standards. As long calendars doesn't support ISO-8601 date format I can hardly recommend Google Calendars and Google Apps to others.
Look at all submitted bug reports: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/search.py?&query=iso+8601
Fix the bugs before all cosmetic changes!
Good try, needs some tweaking.
ReplyDeleteNow for some helpful criticism, it's first and foremost a calendar, that said Days/Numbers/Months are poorly visible. Displaying a full screen on anything at or above resolution (1280x1024) and the words blend into the completely white background. It makes it nearly impossible to see or read quickly without getting frustrated.
Better contrast with Darker fonts or darker background. Display the calendar on full brightness under the sun, you'll see quickly it's impossible to identify events.
Crispier fonts, it seems that there is a slight blurring effect from the contrast/brightness combination that creates a mild blurring effect.
Black text in green or red backgrounds is so ugly! Why always break pretty themes with things like that. Google has formerly done the same to some Gmail themes, so that I've never used those themes since then.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great try, but it does need some tweaking. My biggest complaint is that I really don't like the black text over the pale event blocks in week view. It's really a step back from the darker colors with the white text.
ReplyDeleteDo not like it at all, way too much white space and the flat color is less contrast. Bad on an older laptop.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I just saw it for the first time
ReplyDeleteThe "improvement" is horrible. I use the month view and cannot see the highlight for the current day. The whole calendar seems way too white.. You need to put some contrasting colors in there since you cannot see where the calendar begins and ends (or at least put themes so we can customize our calendar). I do not like the collapsing caledars on the sidebar (I want to be able to click on a calendar without scrolling down). The calendar is compressed when you should have expanded it (get rid of the search option up top...we don't search from this page because IT IS A CALENDAR!!) Make the box for each day bigger so I can see my events instead of +1 or +2.
ReplyDeleteAnd you still didn't fix the problems from the old calendar. Get rid of the default reminder and guest lists. Let me decide if I want a reminder or want to invite someone to be on a guest list. I use this as a calendar and can't stand having to uncheck these boxes for each event I create.
The buttons appear too large...would look neater with smaller sized buttons
ReplyDeleteI really dislike the new Calendar UI, mainly because it wastes space leaving little room to actually see your calendar. It adds a ton more padding between the top bars, sidebars, and the calendar, and removes the much more useful thin blue dividing lines. The header certainly has more room, but if I am using Google Calendar, I am there to see my CALENDAR!
ReplyDeleteI think it looks nice, but I use Hotmail's Calendar so I can sync it with Windows Live Mail (email client).
ReplyDeleteIf there was a way for a two way syncing bet GCal and WLM, I would switch.
I don't see any calendar changes? Oh that's right, I have google apps account and so always miss out on these new fancy features :(
ReplyDeleteWhen oh when are you going to address this situation Mr. Google?
Agreed that information gets lost, it looks washed out and the use of space is worse. It looks 'cleaner' but not in a good way once you try to use it.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred they institute feature changes rather than design ones, I'd love to see who follows my calendar and to be able to change fonts/colors, for starters.
Love it!! great new design. Good work Google.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, Anonymous here again and I apologize for my comment just above as the new calendar just appeared in my google apps account also. Just seemed to take a little while :)
ReplyDeleteHave all of the good interface designers left Google?
ReplyDeleteI had the new look this morning, and it must say it looks great!
ReplyDeleteHowever, it suddenly disappeared again and i cannot seem to find how to re-enable it.
Seeing that a lot of people complain about the new look, maybe a 'themes' options like gmail has might be a good addition?
It's not ugly, but the whole page is for me one color. Very tiring to figure out what's what. I have the same issue with hotmail and live calendar.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the removal of the rounded corners makes the whole thing also a lot less "robust" for some reason.
Sucks big time, switched back to classic. Google get back ur senses please
ReplyDeleteLooks nice but there's too much space wasted on padding at the top. I want to see as much from my calender as possible.
ReplyDeleteI wish web designers would quit using the word "intuitive". It's become a meaningless cliche. How 'bout "simple to use and easy to see"? GCal is still an easy and useful app, but rough on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the design is not smooth enough, too many white space are wasted and as a result only the bottom half of the screen is informative.
ReplyDeleteIt's like I'm staring at nothing. Everything is so light. How do I switch back?
ReplyDeleteLove it, I can finally breathe now in Google Calendar..
ReplyDeletebut needs some small tweaking here and there,
good work
Ugh, my calendar colours now look completely washed out, and the whole thing is ugly. Grey and red? No! And why is everything so padded now? It's such a waste... I feel Google are destroying their brilliant products with this horrible refresh :(
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to see the colors of my events; will need to use the classic view until this is changed.
ReplyDeleteI like the new look, could do with a bit more contrast between colors but it looks a lot more professional than the old one did.
ReplyDeleteGoogle calendar used to look professional. Now they are going for a ghetto look. I could use yahoo if I wanted an that look. There is no way I'm opening my calendar in front of client's with that new low grade image. I'm going to have to transition away from google.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's intuitive of you are a web designer and have been working on creating the design for several months. As a new user, I would not describe this as "intuitive."
ReplyDeleteThere is a way to tell Google what you think about the new look:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=surveyk&ctx=go
=========
A compact version of the new theme - similar to the one offered in Gmail - would be useful for those of us who use Macbooks or similarly small screens.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of screen space from calendar entries to headers is a bit inconvenient. I use the monthly view as default, and anything more than three entries per day results in them being rolled up into a "show 3 more" link
Nice design BUT TAKE ME BACK! I now have to scroll "My Calendars" and "Other Calenders" box. I can only see 1.5 calenders in the list. How do you get back to the old design?! The design on this has gone white space crazy?! How to kill the worlds productivity in one evening.
ReplyDeleteI've never really understood why/how Google is so bad at UI, design, user journey's etc. They MUST have tested this on different resolution screens? Done some user testing? Taken a look at how people use Google Calendars so they can be informed on how to redesign it?
ReplyDeleteI sometimes feel there are still too many academics working at Google and not enough designers and down to earth business people.
This was SO BAD that, even though I went back to classic view immediately, I'm in the process of finding a new solution. (MS Live or Yahoo, or maybe a standalone if one can work with my androids).
ReplyDeleteI can deal with little changes in colors (the nav bar doesn't bother me) and navigation, but I don't get why Google made it so you see less actual information on your calendar! The message I'm getting is that if you have a bunch of calendars and a bunch of appointments, you need a "real" calendar app and GCal is no longer for you. Too bad; I'd used it for years.
Wow, love the new design.
ReplyDeletelooks nice, but functionally sucks
ReplyDeleteI like the new layout also but there is something which I just don't understand. Why have that completely empty white column down the left of the window? Just move the entire content left about 50 pixels and I would be much happier. We would rather a wider view of our calendar events (particularly in my favoured month view) than that wasted space.
ReplyDeleteI don't wish to be rude and I'm not sure if you're really paying attention to what the consensus is about the Calendar (& also Gmail) changes. In short, most think they're incredibly badly thought out in terms of improved usability, are generally very ugly and altogether are an almighty big retrograde step & profound FAIL. Please note this; THEY ARE A FAIL.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't you see that there are no substantial improvements to Calendar & Gmail in what you've done? It's change for change's sake. Given the wealth of talent out there in all things web these days I'm quite honestly astonished that you've not been able to come up with genuinely improved products at this time - particularly after all the hours you (Google) must've put in to it - and that this is the best you can do. Your redesign efforts's with Calendar & Gmail here are almost laughable, being as they are genuinely backward steps; honestly anyone but the worst of the bunch on a 1st year university course would've done better!
Furthermore, I mean it when I say that I'm starting to see a touch of the Microsofts about Google these days, whereby a huge lead in brilliant & cheap products is beginning to be squandered through corporate insularity & generally losing touch with what people actually want & need. Essentially, this sort of cock up illustrates that your becoming victims of your own success, thinking that you can dictate the market whereas the reality is you can only ever fulfill its needs.
The question now is can you back up on the current mess, make some decent & worthwhile improvements to Calendar & Gmail (though few are actually needed - but perhaps you could start with resolving the long-running app issues with Calendar), and get things back on track with Calendar & Gmail?
Well, it's your supertanker, so you show us....
I must admit that I really only care about functionality in an internet calendar and I am not so concerned with how pretty it is. That said, I am very frustrated with the month view. I add a lot of information to my calendar so the month view is completely useless to me. Almost every day I have one event that I can see and a "+4 events" or however many events there are on that date. I had to switch to the classic view just to see my calendar. It would be great if Google offered a viewing option that did not force the monthly calendar onto the screen. I would much rather have all of my events layed out so I can see them and have to scroll down a little bit than have to click on every single day just to see what else is on that date. I have started to use the weekly calendar just so I can see all of the events on my calendar, but sometimes I really need to see them on a month format. This has been a really common gripe on the pages I have looked at so I hope Google will take note and add a little more functionality to the new calendar.
ReplyDeleteThis design is totally unusable POS. It loaded FB- privacy-style, completely without warning (I switched to a tab in Chrome and saw it). Then it took me 10 min to realize what was going on and how to get out of it).
ReplyDeleteWhat is next, a Google Office Assistant???
Good job guys - please send us all back to Outlook. And once we do that we'll have no use for our Android phone - iPhone runs circles around Android when it comes to being a phone.
PLEASE stop f-ing up the good thing you have here and start listening to what your customers want.
We know your bonuses depend on "social crap" and that Google+ is the only horse you have, but not everything is social and not everyone wants Google+ capabilities or the interface. Just because the only tool you have is a hammer, does not mean that every problem is a nail!
Learn to leave well enough alone and cater to your multiple audiences.
Disappointed (again)
Google+ theme is awful, who came up with that? The margins and paddings are HUGE
ReplyDeleteGREAT DESIGN LOVE IT
ReplyDeleteNow if we could have custom start an end times for the calendar...
Hate it for same reason seemingly most mentioned, that you can only see one "event" per day on the month view. As one said, I would rather scroll down to see the calendar and show all (or more) events per day.
ReplyDeleteAnd why not add a usefull search instead of mucking around with formatting?
I'm amazed at all of the negative comments regarding the look. Google is regarded as one of the UGLIEST interfaces until these redesigns. The is clean, uncluttered, easier to read BECAUSE of the extra whitespace. I do admit that the color choices are too pastel and need to be bolder, but it is an improvement to the amateurish look before.
ReplyDeleteThat having been said...the look isn't the real issue that Google should be concerned with, features that actually work and improving function should be the priority, and it clearly isn't. Google tasks is the biggest joke, not enough integration between products and between PC vs the Android apps, etc. Google, if you want to be taken seriously, work on function....form always follows.
I have noticed today that classic look will not be available soon. So I decided to try the new look once more. I could not bear it, switched back to classic view again. I don't know what will I do when classic view is no more available. Please don't touch our classic view. Please!
ReplyDeleteI saw a notification this morning on my Google calendar "The old Google Calendar look you are using is going away soon. Check out the improvements we've been making by choosing "Try the new look" from the gear menu".
ReplyDeleteI dislike the new look very much. From all the negative comments that are posted about the new look, it looks I am not alone.
Why would Google decide to move forward with a change that clearly the majority doesn't not approve? Not a good marketing move on Google's part in my opinion.
I am hugely upset that the classic calendar view is going away. Why? When so many people hugely prefer it to the new view
ReplyDeleteOnly two comments after me in one week. I repeat again and I beg to you: Please keep classic view available. Please!
ReplyDeleteI really feel stomachache when I try to use the new look. Believe me I have tried to use it. I can not breathe properly when I try to use the new look. I really don't know what to do when classic view is gone. I want to use "google calendar", it is a part of my life now. But with the new look it will be almost impossible for me to use it without side effects which I believe I won't be able to handle.
Will it be really too costly for you to keep the classic look available? If not, I beg you once more please keep classic view available. Please!
It will cost nothing to keep the old look as an option.
ReplyDeleteThe new look is quite glaring for people that have sensitive eyes.
Please consider giving people the choice.
Thank you
The biggest issue I'm finding with the new look is when you have appointments with specific times. This is displayed as text with the same color as the calendar. While the muted colours look very pleasant with banners, the lack of contrast for text events makes them very hard to read.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if text-only events should default to a darker shade of those colours? Would that make sense?
The cosmetic part of the design changes is fine, but they've elminated the "show search options" link - the new search only searches into the future - there's no longer a way to search through past events or make any other parameter specifications. That really, sucks.
ReplyDeleteIt is very hard to see the current day in the new look. It is almost the same color as the other days.
ReplyDeleteIt is also hard to see the time of events. The time does not stand out as clearly as in the classic look.
The pastel colors are too low-contrast in general.
I can't tell if an event has an alarm or is part of a series without going to the trouble of getting my mouse onto the event.
UGH, this is HORRIBLE!
ReplyDeleteEven on "compact" less fits on the screen - don't you people actually put stuff on your calendar!!?
The readability is crap.
The colors are ugly and faint.
The "More" -> "Print", "Refresh" is terrible UI.
Why can't you guys spent time on stuff people want (like say, "Tentative") instead of this nonsense!
THIS IS TERRIBLE.
ReplyDeleteI know designers are in love with white space, but this is supposed to be FUNCTIONAL not a magazine cover!
What did you do to make this mess -- steal "designers" from Exchange?
I almost expected f-ing Clippy or BoB to pop up!
Does nobody at Google actually use their calendar?
Even on compact, less info is visible.
The colors are ugly and too faint for good readability.
You have to mouse over to see important info like the icons (alarm clock etc).
Stupidity abounds in the UI -- for just one example "More" -> "Print", "Refresh" -- are you kidding me??
People have been telling you about these problems since you unveiled this albatross, but there is no sign that anyone is listening!!!
Why can't you spend time on things people have been asking for for years (like "Tentative") instead of this garbage?
The new calendar still blows. It is un-useable =(
ReplyDeleteGuess i'll be having to find a new calendar system now unfortunately.
I can't beleive they didn't listen to any of the feedback.
The new colors are bad, the pastel tones and black text make it extremely hard to read.
ReplyDeletePlease make all the changes you want to the new look but leave the "Use the classic look" button alone, lots of apps have skins and themes, whats the deal with this? Why not leave the classic look available as an option?
NECCO wafer color scheme? Really? It's painful to look at.
ReplyDeleteThe new colors are not good, pastel tones is awfull and black text make it extremely had to read.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make changes, ok, but please leave the "Use the classic look" button on again.
Why I can not choose what calendar version I want to use?
I detest the new design. The colors are horrible and everything looks blocky. What have you done google!? Why did you take the classic design away from me!?
ReplyDeleteDon't be evil, hah. You should seriously change your motto.
It's like you DON'T want us to use google calendar. I see how it is.
Dudes and dudettes at G.
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously tired of supporting your products and want people to stop using them?
Because you have removed the choice to continue using the design I carefully customized from my Calendar and it sucks so many rocks so hard I am SERIOUSLY THINKING OF GOING BACK TO (barf) OUTLOOK.
Really, I printed the calendar and it is very hard to read. The darkest color is crap brown. Horrible design from such a big company. Google calendar has the look of the 70's. Terrible!!!! Give me primary colors and black for text.
ReplyDeleteI can not go back to old look on my calendar and I really hate it, and how it turned suddenly to new look i have no idea! how can i switch old look, it looks very confusing and the colours are awful, i want my CLASSIC LOOK BACK!
ReplyDeletevery very bad design, who did the stripes back of the clours? it's really confusing and complicated!
ReplyDeleteIt is painfull. I am still using google calendar since I could not find an alternative. However, it is really painfull and understandable. Changing good to bad and presenting it as good, this is something which totalitarian regimes do.
ReplyDelete