For rival tech brands, Google and Apple have seemed awfully cosy lately. Earlier this month it was announced that, in a huge blow to OpenAI, Google's Gemini will be powering the much awaited (and much delayed) enhanced Siri assistant on every iPhone. And now, Google has compared its UI design with that of Apple. Apple of 40 years ago, that is.
In a comprehensive new blog post detailing the illustration of the Gemini app, Google explains how designers have found themselves "navigating uncharted design territory," citing a very specific piece of Apple design as an equivalent touchpoint from the 1980s.
"Consider designer Susan Kare, who pioneered the original Macintosh interface," Google's blog post proposes. "Her icons weren’t just pixels; they were bridges between human understanding and machine logic. Gemini faces a similar challenge around accessibility, visibility, and alleviating potential concerns. What is Gemini’s equivalent of Kare’s smiling computer face?"
According to Google, it's gradients. These offer "an amorphous, adaptable approach," one that "inspires a sense of discoverability."
Google appears to recognise that it might be a bit of a stretch to equate gradients with something as iconic as the smiling Macintosh. "Gradients might be much more about energy than “objectness,” like Kare’s illustrations (a trash can is a thing, a gradient is a vibe), but they infuse a spirit and directionality into Gemini."
But it's certainly true that designing for AI systems brings a new and unique set of challenges. "Designing illustrations for Gemini is like charting a continuously evolving map," Google says. "How do you build trust with a tool that won’t look the same tomorrow?"
Last year we heard similar comments from the creative director of Microsoft's Co-Pilot, who discussed the challenges of creating a "personal, empathetic AI experience".
