Best of Both Worlds: Improving Gmail Labels with the Affordances of Folders
Abstract
Gmail’s filing system for email conversations is based
around labels, which are more flexible and powerful
than folders. With its original user interface, many
users did not discover labels, and wondered why Gmail
had no folders. The Gmail team redesigned the user
interface for labeling to make it more discoverable and
understandable, and to add the most useful
functionality of folders. The new design works for the
simple use case (a conversation with only one label),
while still making the more complex use case (multiple
labels) easily available. It has been launched to millions
of users worldwide and has resulted in much higher
adoption of labels, especially by new users of Gmail.
around labels, which are more flexible and powerful
than folders. With its original user interface, many
users did not discover labels, and wondered why Gmail
had no folders. The Gmail team redesigned the user
interface for labeling to make it more discoverable and
understandable, and to add the most useful
functionality of folders. The new design works for the
simple use case (a conversation with only one label),
while still making the more complex use case (multiple
labels) easily available. It has been launched to millions
of users worldwide and has resulted in much higher
adoption of labels, especially by new users of Gmail.
Research Areas
