Some questions for the employees behind Google Docs

Something something you ship your org chart.

Mar 24, 2023, 8:57 PM UTC|

I have a lot of questions!Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

I have helpfully labeled my concerns.

Are you aware that this is ugly?
Seriously, what is the logic behind the oval / rectangle divide?
Do you think it’s important for us to notice the toolbar?
You know it’s kind of distracting to make it a different color, right?
How many committee meetings went into that toolbar?
Is anyone working on a Chrome extension to make Google Docs look less hideous?
Are you evaluated for how many products you successfully ship, or are you evaluated on whether the products are good?
How many people made this toolbar decision?
Is this an act of aggression against your users?
Do you resent us?
Or, do you just figure we’re trapped here?
Have you been arguing with your boss about this and they just weren’t listening because there were KPIs to hit?

It’s not just the “bold” button, either!

If you’re adding colors, why not add them to the share settings so people can easily distinguish between “viewer,” “commenter,” and “editor?”
Why are the buttons there ovals?

I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

Is it just that you slapped this together as fast as you could in the hopes you’d get promoted to a hotter division, like AI or something?
If you like ovals so much, how come everything isn’t ovals?
I don’t mind the ovals. It’s just the oval / square thing makes me think of McMansion windows. Do you live in a McMansion?
What does your hottest in-house AI think about ovals?
Is it easier to see the problem if we go to Dark mode?

Look at all those squares and ovals!

My colleagues wanted to know this one: how dare you?
Is there a holy war between oval and square devotees and this was the compromise?
Seriously, you know this is enterprise software, right?
While we’re here, can you go find your Google Meet colleagues and ask them to differentiate the “raise hand” and “clap emoji” buttons more clearly?