Google Doc makeover shows a downside to cloud apps

Google has given Docs, the company's online collaborative word processor, another makeover. The online document editing and storage application now has a new user interface that makes it look and feel more like the Google+ social media web site.

There’s been a similar user interface change for Google Spreadsheets. It's the kind of thing software companies sometimes describe as their "design language" or some similar form of word.

Less colour

Colours have gone from the icons and most other onscreen elements. It looks washed out in comparison with the earlier design.

The menu bar text font is now clearer and easier to read. The unnecessary Google Docs logo has gone and there are new scroll bars. Google added a new collaborate menu item. Finding your way around the app is easier.

These are welcome changes. They cut visual clutter. The minimalism makes it easier to focus on writing or calculating.

It is just as well the changes are welcome and improve productivity, because they’ve been made to the application whether users like them or not.

Cloud application problem

This highlights a problem with cloud applications – they have to be a one-size-fits-all proposition.

If you don’t like the way Microsoft updates traditional desktop versions of Office or if Microsoft makes software design choices that interfere with your productivity, you can choose to not upgrade. If you've got the discs, you can even revert to an older version of the desktop applications after an unwelcome update.

Desktop applications software goes on working as before for ever. There are people who still swear by their 15 year-old versions of Office applications.

That’s not the case with Google Documents. Thankfully Google has made good choices. But if it made bad ones, You could be forced to use something that makes you less productive.