Many Gmail’ers are now forced to deal with the new design of the Gmail interface (meaning no option to revert back to the old design, which will soon be implemented across all accounts); it can be best be described as "the improvements nobody wanted nor asked for". Included with the new interface are icons with no text, wide-spaced nonsense that puts you in scrolling hell, and color schemes that make your mail harder to read. Progress!
All is not awful in Gmail land however. Several blog posts have sprouted up instructing you how to (mostly) make Gmail usable and readable again.
One of the better posts is linked below, so if you’re a Gmail’er, check it out as I’m sure you’ll greatly appreciate the information there. You’ll get your text labels back for icons, get rid of the wide-spaced crapola, and more.
Link: How to cope with the Gmail redesign
Rich’s Opinion
Based on what I’ve seen for comments from Gmail’ers concerning the new interface, the vast majority of them hate it. If I were a Gmail user now (I was formerly), the changes are annoying enough that I would switch over to a mail client and connect to my account via IMAP. The two most annoying parts of the new Gmail interface are the "muted" look and the icons-only way of doing things. Yes, these can both be changed as outlined in the link above, but seriously, what is the deal with Gmail trying to look like a tablet app on a PC (or Mac)? Text labels and "ugly" colors may not be fashionable, but I don’t care about fashion with my email. I just want it to be easy-read and easy-view. Is it too much to ask to have it that way by default?
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The biggest problem I had was the extra white space that Google thought I needed. With a 26″ 1920×1200 screen, white space really isn’t something I want too much off (and yes, if it was smaller, I’d be demanding to strip practically all of the white space away!). I choose the Compact option, and I really don’t care about the rest of the changes.
Google is a better designer than you. Period.
As a web developer, I spend a lot of time telling people that whitespace on a webpage is not a bad thing. Then, Google has to go and prove me wrong.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the Gmail interface and the latest changes have only made it worse. But I use Outlook so I never have to see or deal with it!