14 DAY TRIAL // Gmail is used every day by many millions of people and those who rely on it for work may spend several hours a day using the webmail service. As such, it's very important that the Gmail interface is functional above all else.
Still, you may feel the need for something a little different than the standard offering, in which case the five new themes Gmail introduced should be straight up your alley.
Google made the announcement in a rather unconventional fashion, but, then again, what else could it have said about a new themes announcement.
"Manu: Hey, how would you fancy some new Gmail themes? Jake: Sure, I would love that! How usable are they? Manu: Huh, usable? Well, there’s a flishy-flashy theme that blinks every... Jake: What? I don’t want things to flash, I want to read my email," Manu Cornet, Software Engineer at Google, describes an imaginary conversation, one that doesn't seem that farfetched though.
"Manu: No? Well then, what about this fluorescent pink theme that will make your screen look very special when your friends are looking at... Jake: No pink please! Manu: Oh. Then maybe this hyper dynamic and playful theme that makes all links on the page jump away each time you try to click on... Jake: Are you insane? Please, just give me something usable," he continues.
You've probably got the point, the new themes are all about usability and not bling. The most striking are the Basic Black and Basic White themes which, true to their name, are probably the most bare-bones pair of themes you can get for Gmail.
One theme is white and the other, well, black, but are otherwise identical. Most of the graphical elements are gone and all you're getting is a bunch of text, very few delimiting lines and an overwhelmingly white, or black, background.
If you're looking for something with a little more presence, Gmail has you covered as well. If you're an Android fan, you may like the new Android theme, similar to the one for Google Chrome.
There is also a new "Tree Tops" theme with a self-describing name. Finally, if you like your interfaces drawn by six-year-olds, the new Marker theme is what you're looking for.
