Google’s mobile platform is getting a ‘bubblier’ makeover that features an edge-to-edge design

New Year, new Google! The search giant’s mobile platform is getting a ‘bubblier’ makeover that features an edge-to-edge design and rounder elements

  • Color will be used ‘more intentionally’ to highlight info without being distracting
  • Text will be bolder and bigger, with more Google fonts used throughout
  • Results will fill up the screen with an edge-to-edge design that minimizes shadows
  • The new design will roll out in the coming days, the company says

Google is taking the ‘new year, new me’ motto to heart with a redesign of the Google mobile site for Android and iOs intended to simplify how results look.

In an announcement Friday, the search-engine giant said the new design will feel ‘a little bubblier and bouncier,’ and will lean into ‘that ‘Googley’ feel.

Color will be used ‘more intentionally’ to highlight important information without being distracting.

Text will be bolder and bigger, with more Google fonts used throughout.

And those results will fill up more of your phone’s screen, with an edge-to-edge design that minimizes shadows.

The redesign will roll out in the coming days, the company said.

Scroll down for video

In an announcement Friday, Google said its new design will feel ‘a little bubblier and bouncier.” Color will be used sparingly, so that important information can be highlighted without distraction

‘Rethinking the visual design for something like Search is really complex,’ Google designer Aileen Cheng said in a blog post.

‘That’s especially true given how much Google Search has evolved. We’re not just organizing the web’s information, but all the world’s information.’

The team’s goal was to simplify, not crowd the screen or complicate the search experience.

‘We want to let the search results shine, allowing people to focus on the information instead of the design elements around it,’ she added.

Text in the new Google search engine design will be bigger and bolder, with more Google fonts used throughout.

Search hits still appear in cards, but the colored shadows have been removed and the results run edge-to-edge

Text in the new Google search engine design will be bigger and bolder, with more Google fonts used throughout. 

Cheng calls the new look ‘a breath of fresh air!’

Text will be easier to read, with bolder fonts and bigger text for results and section titles, and more of Google’s own font will be incorporated.

‘Bringing consistency to when and how we use fonts in Search was important, too, which also helps people parse information more efficiently,’ Cheng said.

Earlier iterations of the redesign experimented with both bold colors and muted tones, she said.

Ultimately the design team decided to center content and images against a clean, white background without shadows.

In addition to drawing the eye to the relevant information, she said, ‘It has an optimistic feel, too.’

The designers used the roundness of Google’s name and logo as a launching point, rounding the edges of the knowledge panels, and one side of an image or video carousel.

Google designer Alexa Cheng says the team was inspired by the roundness of the Google logo, calling it 'a part of our DNA'

Google designer Alexa Cheng says the team was inspired by the roundness of the Google logo, calling it ‘a part of our DNA’ 

‘That form is already so much a part of our DNA. Just look at the Search bar, or the magnifying glass,’ Cheng said.

It was in January 2020 that Google rolled out one of the biggest changes to how it displays search results: Color overlays were removed and ‘favicons,’ small branded icons, were used to identify organic hits.

The resulting design made it much harder to differentiate between organic results and ads.

After a near-universal outcry, the company went back to the drawing board.

‘While early tests for desktop were positive, we are always incorporating feedback from our users,’ Google said at the time.