Gmail sucks. The web UI Stockholm Syndrome (or fear of cornfields)

Gmail Sucks.

Kim, in my last post, comments that:

Don't forget the importance of UI culture. Mac interfaces have been good in no small part due to the guidelines Apple provided, and the self-reinforcing Mac developer culture of investing time & energy into making consistent, attractive UIs.

Indeed. Where are the examples of good design on the web? Where is the culture that suggests how things should *really* be done. Well there really isn't one. The best example of this lack of good examples and guidance is Google, the biggest Internet company in the world, and specifically their flagship web application, Gmail.

Now, Gmail gets most of the information architecture aspects exactly right. For example the way Gmail handles threading an ongoing discussion kicks ass.

But Gmail's general interface sucks the big hairy meatwhi**le.

First of all, there is *absolutely nothing* slick about Gmail. It doesnt *feel* well designed.

But my biggest issue with Gmail, and most of applications on the web, is that they allow primary controls to *SCROLL OFF THE WINDOW*.

Excuse me. WTF!

Can you imagine if you had to scroll the window up in Word to get to the style menu, and then scroll back down to edit your text?

In Gmail, if I want to scroll to the bottom of my mail list, I have to *scroll away* all of my controls, including my folders (inbox, sent items, drafts, etc.), my chat list, my filters, all the action buttons at the top of the window, etc.

This is *insane*.

But it is the new standard.

It has almost become an expected or perceived affordance across the web, which is really a shame. To move backwards in terms of what we really expect an application to do is an incredible loss. This would have seemed crazy to do on the Mac 10 years ago. Even today it would seem a bizarre desktop design choice. But it is the web. Like its some handicapped child, we have quietly lowered our expectations.

I understand how we got here. In the beginning it was the best you could do with HTML. But that is no longer the case. And we are stuck. And even Google, with their shiny new version of Gmail hasn't bothered to fix the UI.

This is indeed why everything sucks.

The fact that the largest Internet company in the world can make these kinds of design decisions and no one notices, is why we are where we are with regard to web interfaces. And though I pray for further "ajaxification" of the web, I fear that there are too few good examples of what "good" is and that, like hostages held in long term captivity, we have become sympathetic with our captors.

Or perhaps, for good reason we have just decided to submit. I am reminded of an old Twilight Zone episode called Its a Good Life where a kid named Anthony (played by Billy Mummy) has the ultimate power to wish people who think bad thoughts about him into the cornfields.

So perhaps I should rephrase. Its good that you did that Larry & Sergey. Its good that you did that. Its good that you wished us into the interface cornfields!

Ok, now I gotta go check my Gmail.