Google Help testing a colorful Material redesign on web, mobile that highlights search

Abner Li | Dec 27 2017 - 9:07 am PT

From Calendar to Finance to News, Google’s web apps have seen a fresh coat of paint throughout 2017. However, before the year’s end, the company is currently testing a redesign of Google Help that focuses on search and adds even more Material Design elements.

The current iteration of the site features some Material Design, notably the app bar with an elongated search bar up top. However, the new look highlights search even more with a tall header that asks “How can we help you?” and invites users to “Describe your issue.”

Auto-complete suggestions still populate after users enter a search into the bar, while the header continues to incorporate the Google Bar with profile icon, notifications, and app launcher.

However, other aspects like the page title are interestingly now right-aligned — instead of on the left side — along with links to Contact, Help Forum, and more.

Jumping into a specific support page, the header is color matched to the service’s dominant color. By default, and for Google Pixel and Pixel Buds, the header is blue, but for Gmail it is red and for Keep it is yellow.

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Meanwhile, that color also serves as a highlight hue. When users expand on a category, there is a light tint to better contrast the selections. The old design with the search app bar does still persist when viewing a specific support article.

This redesign also applies to the mobile website, just in a screen-optimized version that users a hamburger menu to hide the external links from the main page. So far, we’ve only seen this redesign on one account, with others at 9to5Google still encountering the old page.