- Google is updating Gmail’s interface with additional iconography.
- You’ll now start seeing icons associated with options in the overflow menu accessed while viewing emails.
- We’re not yet seeing this on all devices, however, so Google may be slowly enabling the change on its own end.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of icons. While they can feel deceptively simple, a few well-chosen glyphs can make all the difference when it comes to improving our experiences with apps by quickly and nonverbally communicating functionality — it’s the kind of attention that turns good apps into great apps. This week we’re looking at the latest way Google’s employing icons to make one of its Android apps a smidge more usable, as Gmail gets a new look for some of its menus.
When you pull up Gmail’s main menu by tapping the hamburger icon at the top-left of your Android screen, Google makes it easy to navigate by pairing icons with labels for all the menu’s options: a trash can for your trash, a clock for snoozed messages, and so forth.