Google's new redesigns eliminate the separation between different areas of the window, and replace it with white space, while generally increasing white space through the design.
Overall you can see fewer things, and lacking anything to stop your eyes, the various areas of the screen blend into each other. It's much more WORK to use the calendar and Gmail with the new theme. The new Gmail "Dense" theme is less compact than the old Gmail.
Basically, any time your design is using ultra-light grey lines/text for anything, you've gone wrong. CONTRAST. It's important.
Yes, both redesigns appear to take massive steps backwards in terms of contrast and information density, and to add insult to injury, promote one random design element, Compose in the case of Gmail, to a giant non-standard ugly colored 'button'.
Exactly. I don't understand why so many love the idea of less contrast. On a Macbook, everything blends together and it's very hard to distinguish anything. I really can't imagine anyone over 40 liking this design. I've heard countless times from customers that "I couldn't see that" and 99% of the time it's because of low-contrast design issues.
Overall you can see fewer things, and lacking anything to stop your eyes, the various areas of the screen blend into each other. It's much more WORK to use the calendar and Gmail with the new theme. The new Gmail "Dense" theme is less compact than the old Gmail.
Basically, any time your design is using ultra-light grey lines/text for anything, you've gone wrong. CONTRAST. It's important.