Google Lens is trying to improve its brand logo, as in a new test the product’s icon is redesigned to resemble a camera more closely than it previously did.
Let us be frank. Google’s a tech giant, easily the crown jewel of its parent company Alphabet’s repertoire, and has been responsible for so many different products that counting them would take us the better part of a day. However, when it comes to logo designing, the Google Lens is where the megacorp definitely slipped up. Lens, for those unfamiliar, is a feature that dredges up useful information about objects identified by a phone camera. Using a highly sophisticated neural network, the feature conducts an analysis on the object by taking into consideration OR codes, text-based tags, labels, etc. In functionality, it strongly resembles the now defunct Google Goggles, in that it provides information using data acquired through a visual medium. Initially launched as its own differentiated app, the Lens feature was eventually assimilated by the Android camera app.
So, where did it mess up exactly? Well, the depicting icon could certainly use a touchup, an opinion that Google seems to have come around to as well. The initial launch design in 2017 depicted a square with a middle circle representing a lens and a bottom right circle to more closely resemble a camera. For whatever reason, Google decided to revamp the design in 2019. Which would have been fine, the first design didn’t very accurately harken to a camera as it was, if the second design wasn’t even more confusing. The circles remained, but instead the square’s boundaries were made thicker and each line was then split into two by a gap. Why Google thought this “avant-garde” stylistic choice would further resemble a lens is anyone’s guess. Especially when visually impaired people who rely on such features would be much obliged if the icon at hand resembled, well, a camera.
And that is exactly what Google has decided to do with its third iteration. To an extent, at any rate. No beating around the bush, this latest iteration looks like a minimally drawn camera. That’s it. It sports the same Google color scheme as all the other iterations did, and also features a central lens. It’s a lovely, simple visual aid for anyone scratching their heads over how Lens can be accessed. Rajan Patel, Google’s Engineering VP, even said as much in a recent tweet where he elaborated that the feature is testing how effectively the icon’s function can be explained.
In that very tweet, Patel also specified that the update is experimental. Simply put, this isn’t necessarily Google rebranding Lens’ entire design, just its representing icon on the Search bar. Not to mention that this feature is currently only available for a few select community members, and may start to roll out for everyone else soon enough.
Read next: Google revamps Mobile Search to make it easier to read and to allow the users to focus on the information in a better way
Let us be frank. Google’s a tech giant, easily the crown jewel of its parent company Alphabet’s repertoire, and has been responsible for so many different products that counting them would take us the better part of a day. However, when it comes to logo designing, the Google Lens is where the megacorp definitely slipped up. Lens, for those unfamiliar, is a feature that dredges up useful information about objects identified by a phone camera. Using a highly sophisticated neural network, the feature conducts an analysis on the object by taking into consideration OR codes, text-based tags, labels, etc. In functionality, it strongly resembles the now defunct Google Goggles, in that it provides information using data acquired through a visual medium. Initially launched as its own differentiated app, the Lens feature was eventually assimilated by the Android camera app.
So, where did it mess up exactly? Well, the depicting icon could certainly use a touchup, an opinion that Google seems to have come around to as well. The initial launch design in 2017 depicted a square with a middle circle representing a lens and a bottom right circle to more closely resemble a camera. For whatever reason, Google decided to revamp the design in 2019. Which would have been fine, the first design didn’t very accurately harken to a camera as it was, if the second design wasn’t even more confusing. The circles remained, but instead the square’s boundaries were made thicker and each line was then split into two by a gap. Why Google thought this “avant-garde” stylistic choice would further resemble a lens is anyone’s guess. Especially when visually impaired people who rely on such features would be much obliged if the icon at hand resembled, well, a camera.
And that is exactly what Google has decided to do with its third iteration. To an extent, at any rate. No beating around the bush, this latest iteration looks like a minimally drawn camera. That’s it. It sports the same Google color scheme as all the other iterations did, and also features a central lens. It’s a lovely, simple visual aid for anyone scratching their heads over how Lens can be accessed. Rajan Patel, Google’s Engineering VP, even said as much in a recent tweet where he elaborated that the feature is testing how effectively the icon’s function can be explained.
In that very tweet, Patel also specified that the update is experimental. Simply put, this isn’t necessarily Google rebranding Lens’ entire design, just its representing icon on the Search bar. Not to mention that this feature is currently only available for a few select community members, and may start to roll out for everyone else soon enough.
Read next: Google revamps Mobile Search to make it easier to read and to allow the users to focus on the information in a better way
