Google just released Google Currents (what's up with the name?!) It is supposed to be "kind of" like Flipboard, except that it is less fun. 

Google also released an update to Google Maps some weeks ago to include indoor maps. Both new releases gave me a shock. New UI language is being introduced in the already UI-fragmented Android platform. 

Google, here is the problem: If you cannot make the UI of your apps consistent, how do you expect developers to follow your design language? Which one should they follow? You have to set the bar high. You have to show what a good app is supposed to be like. Developers will follow and the culture will be created. E.g. Apple set the bar for realistic textured apps. Developers followed.

As you can see, there are all sorts of tabs styles used by Google on their products. Which one should a developer use?

I must admit the problem is because it should not be named MORE. It conflicts with the standard meaning of MORE in the menu = "to show MORE menu items". In this case, MORE = "to show more maps related apps". It should be renamed.

Google Currents introduced a whole new popup look. 2 lines. New font. New DONE button. New colors. New size. 

Everything about Google Goggles seems to be 1.5x bigger. The logo. The title font size. The icon size. The icon label. Everything is much bigger compared to the similar icon based home screen of Google+.

Decide whether you want to add lines between the icons. Google Offers have end and between divider lines. Google+ has no lines between the icons. Google Books has no end line. 

Oh. And notice that all 3 apps have different title font. Offers vs Google+ vs Books - all different.

The bar is pretty standard across many Google apps, except that the Google Navigation bar is slightly bigger. Why??? 

All apps uses different search icon. The styling of the search is very different too.

One of the most important concept of UX and UI is to be consistent - both in behavior and in the visual design. In many sense, consistent UI encourages and leads to consistent UX. Visual consistency is just the first basic step. 

Am I nit-picky? Maybe. But I am a designer. Designer sees things that is 1 pixel off. Pixel Perfect means perfect to the exact pixel. These are glaring mistakes I see on a daily basis when I use my phone. My Android phone is cluttered with inconsistencies across all apps. 

The reason why there are such differences in these Google apps is that the designers in each of these teams know that Android design is ugly. They all want to change the standard popup design. They want to change the icons. They want to tweak the style. Both the Currents and Google+ team clearly wanted a more flat look compared to the more 3D look of other apps. 

I used to rant a lot about Google web services - Search vs Maps vs Gmail vs News, etc. But with the recent efforts to unify the look of these web services to use design language of Google+, they now look much better. More importantly, these web services have a more consistent feel to it. 

Let's hope that they do something across all their Android apps too.

Disclaimer: I am using and loving my Android Galaxy S2. I also used to intern at Google as UX.