For those wondering, I am a HUGE Google fan. In fact, I was very anxious to try out the Google Navigation Bar (Figure 1) when it was first announced back in March 11, 2011. I finally got it on all my web applications today (or at least most of them). Took a while but my first impressions was that it looked great! In this post, I will be highlighting some of the features I like.
Figure 1: Google Naviagation Bar
First Impressions: Look and Feel
My first thought on the new Navigation Bar was that it was really sleek. It's one of those menu hiding minimalistic feelings that you get when you first get Google Chrome. I'm sure the "look and feel" of the theme had a lot to do with it; being discrete and effective at the same time. However, the menu on the right side was a bit confusing to begin with. After playing around with it, I got the hang of it.
Features I Like
Still said by many, "A picture is worth a thousand words". While the small gear icon isn't equivocal to a thousand links to settings, I can see where the minimalistic feel originates from. Being able to jump straight to your Google Profile is a great feature if you need to edit something on your profile. As well, a link to the application dashboard is really useful to see the plethora of different applications that come with your Google Account which you've never heard of. Google is starting to take privacy to heart and added a privacy dashboard link to the profile menu.
While I like the links to different applications, I expect this to be standard with a navigation toolbar. As well, the settings menu is a great way to modularize the Navigation Bar so that it can work well with all Google Applications.
Recommendations
For those who are actively building their Google Profiles (new social product coming soon?), it would be nice to see a profile picture. This gives the user a more personalized feel to the Navigation Bar. Of course, remember to keep it minimalistic at the same time.
Making the contents under the gear menu more consistent between each application would ease the use of the bar across applications. This would also standardize the menus in each web app to balance consistency and those essential pages.
Also, it would be great if this Navigation Bar would be standard to all Google-bought products such as YouTube to give that "Google Dominance" feel.
Conclusion
All in all, the Google Navigation Bar is another update that has changed the everyday experience of using a Google Product. I look forward to more updates impacting everyday life from Google!
