© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
When Google rolled out a design change for its Phone application on Android mobile sets, it was met with a deluge of online outrage — more than what you’d think a simple revamp warrants.
The changes, as part of Google’s larger design overhaul, the “Material 3 Expressive” update, are arguably small but significant. Besides visual tweaks, like an icon change here and a bolded text there, Google says the functional changes are meant to simplify things: a flattened chronological call log, a horizontal swipe to ‘answer’ or ‘decline’, and a separate keypad tab. But to many, the update felt anything but simple.
My Nanu, for instance, rang me up about a phone “issue” he couldn’t seem to fix. When he arrived at my house, the issue turned out to be the new horizontal swipe — a gesture Google has introduced to reduce accidental taps from the previous up-and-down motion. To him, it felt like a bug. His hands were unfamiliar with the gesture.
Scrolling through X later, I saw he wasn’t alone. The remodelled app had inspired memes and rants. “I don’t feel like calling anyone anymore,” one user wrote. Others joked about parents accusing them of “messing up” their phones.
While it’s easy to dismiss this as a classic resistance to change, as Nomeshwari Reddy, a senior product designer, explains, it goes much deeper: “We often underestimate the power of muscle memory. When we use an app repeatedly, our brains create shortcuts. You don’t consciously think, ‘I need to tap the green circle to answer.’ You just do it. So when a User Interface (UI) changes, even slightly, it breaks that habit loop. Suddenly, a familiar action requires conscious thought. That cognitive load, no matter how small, is frustrating, and it leads to strong emotional reactions.”
In other words, it’s not just about aesthetics. Minor design changes essentially mess with the “call” in the “I’m just a call away” and shift the ‘set’ rhythm of our fingers and our brain.
Behind bold icons and fresh layouts lies a larger displacement we feel when the way our phone works changes. This isn’t unique to Google. Apple recently faced similar pushback with its “liquid glass” design, which was criticised as inaccessible. That’s because our devices are no longer just neutral tools. We snooze alarms, scroll feeds in bed, and call loved ones, swiping, gesturing through the day, without even a second thought. And any disruption to that routine and comfort feels pronounced.
Rohan Arora, a product designer at Zepto, puts it simply: “When the look suddenly changes, it’s like someone moved the furniture in your house overnight. It’s uncomfortable, even if the function is the same.”
Tanuja, a User Experience (UX) designer at a tech company, says: “Designs are made keeping two things in mind: accessibility and business needs. And then comes adding delight. Our job is to blend those three: make interfaces inclusive, meet product goals, and add moments that genuinely please our users. We as designers are artists with heart, whose purpose is to add joy while upgrading.”
She adds that design is personal, shaped as much by nostalgia and comfort as by aesthetics. So, what’s a style statement for one might feel wrong to another, like Crocs, Birkenstocks, or even Labubu, she elaborates. This personalisation also means designers need to carefully balance creativity with user ease. “Modernising doesn’t mean ruining accessibility or comfort. You look at an icon and know it belongs. So even when I design new icons, I retain their essence so it resonates with the overall brand language.”
If changes are preceded by such careful decisions and can illicit strong user responses, then why do them at all? Reddy explains: “Overhauls are typically driven by functionality. As technology advances, designs need to support new features. They are also about optimisation; older designs become patchworks of updates, making code difficult to maintain. A redesign streamlines things and makes apps much more stable. And then there’s consistency. Companies like Google want a cohesive look across all apps, so an update to one is part of unifying the ecosystem.”
In short, change is rarely cosmetic. It’s often about preparing the ground for the next set of features.
For instance, Aditya Sharma, interaction designer at an automotive company, speaks about making designs future-ready for Artificial Intelligence (AI). Updates like Google’s Material 3 Expressive system are about “preparing interfaces to host new micro-interactions, contextual prompts, AI suggestions, that need a consistent, legible underlying system,” he says.
He adds that while the intent is always improving functionality and efficiency, no amount of smooth transition can make user frustration completely disappear. “It’s still early to judge. Google’s design updates often make sense in the bigger picture. Right now, people dislike it in isolation, but it could feel more natural once the rest of the ecosystem catches up,” Arora adds.
It’s a collaboration with you
Design, ultimately, is about balancing innovation and comfort. And that balance is never seamless, at least not in the beginning, and it requires users and designers to often work together. As Tanuja reminds us, feedback is part of the process: “‘Users are the boss. If something feels off, leave feedback on the Play Store. We do read it, and it guides our work.”
And it may sound absurd, but designers admit that they even see the memes on their designs, and use them to learn how to serve you better. In the end, it’s all about a little collaboration between the techie-artists and the end users, and a whole lot of trial and error.
Kavya Vashisht is a freelance writer
