More than one way to skin an e-mail account

Posted on Nov 20, 2008 in Design, Web Dev | 2 comments

Today, I logged into my Gmail account. “That’s strange,” I thought, seeing the color scheme and slightly-altered edges of page elements. I was busy and didn’t pay too close attention; I merely wrote it off to an oddity of the aging Windows box I’m forced to use at work.

But when I logged on from home, I noticed one of those discreet messages Gmail employs, this one informing me that Gmail now has themes. What a great extension to an already great product. Gmail is rapidly becoming a popular e-mail client (everyone I know is switching to it and loves it, though Google apparently is keeping total usage numbers to themselves), and these skins are just another step in the evolution of the product (such as the new video chat feature, which I’ve not yet used).

Google is smart to further solidify their popularity with younger users who have become more accustomed to the ability to customize, or “skin,” their desktops, phones, MySpace pages, Trapper Keepers–everything. Choosing one of the subdued, whimsical, or spartan theme for your primary e-mail interface is another way to endear the tool–and more importantly, the Google brand–to an important demographic. Google’s customized home page, iGoogle, has offered themes for some time so adding this ability to Gmail is a logical next step.

I won’t go into a description of the themes available. You can see examples and read more about it over on Google’s blog. But I just had to call out two themes: Terminal and Ninja. I’m running Terminal now, but I don’t know how long I can actually take this ASCII-style monochrome throwback.

UPDATE: I agree with Sean’s comment (below). The fact that the message composition area is not skinned is a bit of a distraction. It’s especially problematic with the high-contrast themes like Terminal and Contrast Black. Here’s a sample with the Terminal theme:

I know this area can be skinned, as the chat window follows the aesthetic of the theme. Perhaps it was more complicated to skin it if Gmail is using a framework like TinyMCE for the composition area. But Sean’s right—Gmail is eternally in beta so perhaps when it officially launches this area will respect the theme choice?

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