Can we all agree that the Google Workspace icon redesign is one of the biggest UX/design fiascos of the last few years?
I know it's not exactly a global crisis... but it drives me absolutely nuts.
Every app now looks like it came from the same template:
A little green.
A little blue.
A little yellow.
A little red.
Need Gmail? Good luck.
Looking for Drive? Maybe.
Calendar? Meet? Docs? Sheets? Keep? Spin the wheel.
I swear I spend the first five seconds of every task playing "Guess the Google Icon."
I get the intention. Consistent branding. A unified ecosystem. Great in theory.
But great design isn't just about consistency: it's about helping people recognize things instantly. Icons are supposed to reduce cognitive load, not create a daily game of "Where's Waldo?"
The old icons weren't perfect, but at least you could spot them in a split second.
Somewhere along the way, "everything looks consistent" became "everything looks identical."
Am I the only one who still clicks three wrong icons before finding the one I actually wanted? Or is this Google's version of adding a daily puzzle to our workflow? :)