GOOGLE: A Story of Minimalism in Design
GOOGLE has become the center of attention globally during the past couple of weeks, thanks to its announcements on ALPHABET as well as unveiling of its brand new logo. In GOOGLE's own words, the new logo is its biggest update in 16 years. Yet, it is amazing to see how little the logo has changed apart from a new typeface (read Product Sans). And that can be pinned on GOOGLE's unyielding pursuit of minimalism in its brand element design.
For the past two decades, GOOGLE has been pioneering the art of identifying real life customer pain points and developing solutions for the same. And biggest hallmark of products rolled out by the Mountain View based software giant has been their core focus on functionality and clutter free minimalist design. Take the case of GOOGLE SEARCH. Just when the world think that it can't be made any more simpler, GOOGLE updates the page; a change in typeface, a different usage of colours, flat buttons in place of rounded ones, all while keeping the blue print of the page intact.
"WE HAVE TOO MANY UNNECESSARY THINGS EVERYWHERE. I WOULD DESCRIBE THIS AS INHUMANE." - DIETER RAMS
According to renowned industrial designer Dieter Rams, a good design
emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it. That is the secret behind the timeless design of products (including the RT20 Tube Radio shown below) he had designed for Braun, a German consumer products company, during early 1960s. Half a century down the line, Google follow Rams's "less is better" ideology to create great product designs.
GOOGLE's legacy is not only the products they have created over the years, and the way they have become an integral part of our lives, but also the immaculate design philosophy with all its inherent charm that has become the torch bearer of minimalist design in modern times. Even with the current update, GOOGLE has neatly integrated its colour palette into everything online associated with its products starting with a new 'G' logo for mobile to the microphone icon for voice search.
On the functionalism front, GOOGLE has been bettering its products with every passing day. It started off with products that used to give us precisely what we needed from them. Over the years, the continuous learning using Yottabytes of user data has made their products smarter than anything else in the online space. Like a well versed scholar, GOOGLE products now suggest useful information and actionable items to 308 billion internet users every single day. For some, it is alarming to comprehend the fact that GOOGLE might be knowing more about us than we know about ourselves.
In the years to come, GOOGLE might roll out more and more innovative products and improve the existing ones. And it should be safe to assume that their designs will stay true to its current success formula - minimal, adaptable and functional. With the GOOGLE colours flashing before the eyes of an average internet user several thousand times a day in different shapes and sizes, the four colour palette is bound to get engraved even deeply in the minds of humanity. Now that's what you call a good design, isn't it?