Gmail's getting a makeover.
According to a post on the Gmail Blog, Google's popular email service will soon roll out updates to the Gmail interface that are designed to streamline the appearance of the tool to make it easier for users to manage their mail.
"Over the years, adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex," wrote Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer for the service. "That’s one of the reasons we’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful."
As part of this revamp, Google Calendar will be getting a new look, too. (Click here to see a sample of the Calendar redesign.)
The changes will be gradually rolled out over the next few months. Right now, users can apply Google's new settings to preview two of the upcoming themes, which feature different information densities. While the two themes available now are fairly simple, Google promises that updated themes with colors and illustrations are on their way. Google also notes that some Labs features will not display properly in the preview.
To try out the new themes, simply go to Mail Settings in Gmail, then to the "Themes" tab. The new themes are titled "Preview" and "Preview (dense)," and they appear at the bottom of the list of available themes. Choose one to test-drive the new Gmail for yourself, or view screenshots of the new setup (below).
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