Following its recent promise to roll out design improvements across its products, Google on Thursday provided a glimpse of Gmail's new look.
The various features added to Gmail over the years have made the interface "cluttered and complex," Google said in a blog post. The revamp, therefore, strips out the clutter to make Gmail as "beautiful as it is powerful."
"This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that's more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products," wrote Jason Cornwell, Google user experience designer.
The changes will roll out gradually in the next few months "to allow plenty of time to understand and incorporate your feedback into the evolving design," Cornwell said.
To start, Google is adding two new themes that will reflect the look and feel of the planned update. The "Preview" and "Preview (Dense)" options are available via the Themes tab in Gmail Settings (click right for larger image).
"Why two themes? Our new interface will eventually expand dynamically to accommodate different screen sizes and user preferences, but until then you can pick the information density that you prefer," Cornwell said.
The new themes basically present a more spacious view of the Gmail inbox. Compared to the classic view currently available in Gmail, the new interface provides more space between emails and the links on the left bar (Inbox, Starred, Sent Mail, etc). The section you're currently viewing, meanwhile, will be highlighted in red. The "Compose Mail" button is also in red and the letters are in all caps, as are "Search Mail" and "Search the Web" buttons. The "Dense" preview option places emails and links a bit closer together.
Cornwell said the options provide Gmail with a "much cleaner, modern look," but acknowledged there are still some rough edges, particularly when it comes to some Labs features.
"We plan to fix these issues as we roll out changes in the coming months," he wrote. "You can also expect some updated themes that embody the same design principles but are better suited to working in a dark environment, use a different color palette, or include the illustrations that we know many of you love to see around your inbox."
Google already started rolling out similar changes on Google.com. The company logo is a bit smaller, and links across the top of the page are now housed within a black bar. When you conduct a search, the links on the left-hand side of the page have more space between them. The link for the section in which you're searching, meanwhile, is red, while the other links are black. Your location and timeframe preferences are also in red.
The move comes days after Google unveiled its Google+ social network. For more, see PCMag's hands on with Google+ and the slideshow below.