Google Calendar Gets Prettier

Posted @ 6/30/2011 6:00 AM


I'm in the waning days of my Gmail/Google Calendar usage, but I woke up this morning to catch up on email and get started on the day, and discovered that Google Calendar had gotten a nice-looking facelift with a flatter UI, a cleaner layout, and some other niceties. Google reports that the changes are just cosmetic, so the underlying Calendar functionality hasn't changed. (Which is too bad: I was hoping this would fix the multiple calendars on Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" issue.)

http://www.winsupersite.com/content/content/139676/googlecal_june2011.jpg;pv53b0f49b13725be4

Here's a rundown of the changes, courtesy of Google:

The Quick add function is now under the down arrow next to the Create button
Calendars selected for viewing in your My calendars and Other calendars lists will no longer display with a colored background; instead, only the arrows next to them will be colored.
The Print and Refresh buttons are now icons rather than text links. The Print button shows a printer, and the Refresh icon is a circular arrow.
Visual indicator icons (alarm clock icon for events with reminders, person icon for events with guests, etc.) will only show when the event is hovered over.
The My calendars and Other calendars lists on the left are now collapsed by default and may be expanded using the small gray arrow. Once expanded, they will remain expanded on refresh or open.
The mini month view calendar under the Create button is collapsible using the small gray arrow.
The Save and Discard buttons and Back to calendar link are only available at the top of the event page, not the bottom.

Google says more changes are coming and that this new visual style is part of a new consistent visual experience that will work across the companies various services on PCs, mobile phones, and tablets. Looks good to me.