cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17574522

Over the course of 2024, Google Maps for Android has been working on a redesign that drops most fullscreen UIs in favor of sheets…

  • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    4 months ago

    It’s amazing to me how much these companies spend on redesigns that add nothing but rounded corners one year, then sharp corners next year, and so on…

    • triptrapper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      A friend of mine worked for a FAANG company and he taught me that people get promoted for creating something “new” rather than improving something that already exists.

      • evo@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        4 months ago

        Bullshit. You are just regurgitating the same tired crap that’s been repeated on the Internet for years.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          4 months ago

          As someone who’s worked for such companies since the mid-90’s, it’s common knowledge that run-and-maintain isn’t appreciated, only doing new things is.

          Someone who keeps things from failing is much more at risk during layoffs than those who work only on new projects.

          Gonna call me a liar now?

          • evo@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 months ago

            As someone who works for a similar company now, this notion and the success of this strategy/mindset greatly exaggerated.

            Considering how often new projects get axed at Google you couldn’t possibly be safer on average than working on a golden goose (like Search/Android/Maps/etc).

          • sunzu@kbin.run
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 months ago

            You got get that W, you don’t get a W for making shit work. You are a cost center haha

        • Drusas@kbin.run
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          It’s repeated because it’s true. This is very common in the industry.

    • cass80@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      4 months ago

      It’s busy work to justify a lot of positions. Think how many people are needed even for a minor change like that in an organization as large and bloated as google

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Google has been very square with Android since Android 4. Holo made everything black grids, and then the first iteration of material design made everything paper like (with a few round floating bubbles). The rounded corners are relatively new to Google.

      Can’t say I dislike the trend. The “floating islands” design works well for apps like these.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        MD sucks balls, I despise this crap. It makes a less obvious distinction between elements to look cool, or new or intriguing, or different, or whatever bullshit UI designers come up with.

        UI everywhere has been going backwards for 10-15 years now. Giant ovals with text for the Quick Settings buttons is an improvement? More swipes is better? Less contrast in a browser/app window is better?

        Oh yea, let’s remove color from status bar icons 🤦🏼‍♂️

        • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 months ago

          I don’t really have a problem with it. The shadows are clear enough to show boundaries (something that was missing from earlier Material Design iterations in many apps because nobody read the guidelines apparently).

          I do lower the display scale to fit more on my screen, because for some reason every phone decides that making the screen twice as big means every icon needs to be twice as big as well. If you didn’t get the prompt to do so when you set up your phone, you should check the display settings.

          Having run Android 4.4 on my old Oneplus One a while back, I’m pretty sure the toggles got physically smaller, probably because Holo lacked proper scaling settings to correct for the screen size.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      I literally can’t even tell the difference between the first set of pictures other than the new one looks like it has an added advertisement on the center panel.