If you’ve used Google search while on your desktop today, you’ve probably noticed some differences in the Google search results. The new designs that Google has been testing out have gone from experimental to real changes. The search results now have a “cleaner” look, with the paid advertisements looking almost identical to the organic results. The result titles are bigger, no longer underlined, and all the line heights are now evened out.
Google’s lead designer for Google search, Jon Wiley, posted about these interface design changes on his Google+ page Wednesday. “Towards the end of last year we launched some pretty big design improvements for Search on mobile and tablet devices,” said Wiley. “Today we’ve carried over several of those changes to the desktop experience. We’ve increased the size of result titles, removed the underlines, and evened out all the line heights. This improves readability and creates an overall cleaner look. We’ve also brought over our new ad labels from mobile, making the multi-device experience more consistent.”
So what’s the reasoning behind these changes?
It’s all about consistency. According to Wiley, “Improving consistency in design across platforms makes it easier for people to use Google Search across devices and it makes it easier for us to develop and ship improvements across the board.” What do you think about the new look of Google’s search results?