Google Drive Items Selection Checkboxes from Material Design 3 - Annoying?

[daryle_tilroe]

OK so I don't know if it just me and people I know but with the Google Material Design 3 update the checkboxes that appear to the left of an item (file, folder, shortcut, etc.) seem to be very annoying.  The moment you hover over an item it obscures what filetype it is or if it is a directory or shortcut.  Of course this also applies when you have done a multiple selction.  This make it impossible to do a quick confirmation of what you have selected or are about to select.

Anyone else hate this behaviour and display?  Other than some, sometimes unreliable, secondary clues such as file extensions or size what do I have to go on at a glance?

[cryptochrome]

Agreed. This is *really* bad UI/UX. 

[daryle_tilroe]

Oh also the minute you select anything the top "location" banner disappears...  I don't think this used to happen.  Again very poor design to mask/hide meta information on items you are selecting.  I can't thing of any other file manger type GUI that would do this. 

Oh and plug for this other issue.  It is making Shared Drives *VERY* hard to properly use with any sort of sensible rights management and apparently Google doesn't consider it a severe bug??? 

I am increasingly questioning how many at Google have actually used file systems and their interfaces over the last 6 decades that they have evolved...  And who is making interface/design decisions.  Sigh. 

[daryle_tilroe]

OK I don't know where the discussion on all the Material Design 3 issues is, but I'll agin drop this here.

I am really getting annoyed at some other aspect of how a file is default selected when you either double click on it to access, right click, or open the folder window by some method that realates to the the file - example here would be doing a file search then clicking on the parent folder on the results list. 

In all of these cases that selection then obscures the file type and hides the folder path location.  This is so disruptive to a lot of work flows.

For example I double click on a file to open and then I hop back to the folder window to perhaps go up the directory tree... I now have to unselect the file first!  Crazy... 

[cryptochrome]

I wouldn't know how I could possibly agree more. I don't know what Google thought when they released this. Incredibly bad. It feels like they let the interns have a field day. How something like this can slip through quality control of one of the most valuable companies on the planet is beyond words. 

[craig66]

Thank you for pointing these out in public... I'm not a fan of the changes, but as usual, I'll adjust before Google does.

[sr_marshall]

Is there a rationale for this? Some kind of security issue? It also forces you to 'move' a file using 4 discrete steps instead of the old drag and drop method (ex: when moving something from a subfolder back into the higher-order folder by using the folder path). Why use the folder-path space to tell me I've selected an item. I know I've selected the item. What I don't know (now) is the folder-path! Incredibly annoying. I wonder if it was meant to privilege file sharing (because you can initiate that now with one click rather than right clicking and then sharing) over file management/organization. I can see how a programmer would think that this is an improvement if everyone is working remotely and sharing files constantly, but if you have a lot of people collaborating with a lot of different folders then organization/management is probably more important to productivity and institutional memory than one-click sharing...

[bethanyfay]

Vehemently agree. I can't see any benefit to this change; slows me down drastically though!

[whadupbratha]

This change is horrific. It makes it so annoying to use google whereas before it was a breeze. It doesn't improve efficiency, it eradicates it. This whole selected-by-default thing has to be the most infuriating thing I've ever experienced when it comes to file sharing and storage, etc. I agree how making the file path invisible is the worst idea on the planet! Just wow, I'm speechless someone OK'd this. Honestly, it's embarrassing for Google and frustrating for everyone who uses it. I pay for extra storage and this is a shitty move they made.

[daryle_tilroe]

So thank Google that Google at least rolled back the checkbox replacing the file/directory type icon.  Now if they would undo that obscuring of the top directory path we would be almost back to normal after this Material Design 3 fiasco.

Fix the inablity to navigate though drives/directory levels without write access to those where you do and I'm be a happy camper.

[vian]

Is the rollback confirmed worldwide? I still have the navigation breadcrumb hidden by the number of selected files (crucial info indeed...)

[daryle_tilroe]

Oh no, don't get your hopes up.  The roll back was only of the checkbox replacing the filetype icon (now the line is simply highlighted).  Who knows when, or indeed if ever, that other annoyance, of the filepath banner/breadcrumb being replaced when there are selections, will be undone. 

[whadupbratha]

I hope they get rid of it, it continues to be an absolute nuisance. It's so counterintuitive that it's unreal anyone ever approved it.