If you've been following along with the Chrome announcement, and you're interested in the whys behind their UI design, I refer you, gentle reader, to the Chromium Developer Documentation - User Experience, wherein is described
... the motivations, assumptions, and directions behind Chromium's user interface design. Its goal is to explain the current design in a way that further work can be developed in-style, or so that our assumptions can be challenged, changed, and improved.
Of course, the huge design choice that isn't explained, the giant in the room, if you will, shows up in this illustration from the comic:
I can't help but think that people will encounter some difficulties in using a browser that's taller than a man. The Fitts' Law hit alone seems worth a bit of rethinking on Google's part, at least without a lot of stretching.
Posted by madhava at September 3, 2008 10:38 AMYour mistake is assuming the people shown in the comic are normal sized. In fact, Ben Goodger himself is a mere 7.4cm tall, which makes him particularly well suited for demonstrating mobile UI.
[Google also achieves a high cubicle-packing density with this arrangement, and saves a fortune with their new pelletized GoogleChow.]
Posted by: Justin Dolske at September 3, 2008 11:43 AMYou mean your display doesn't support the new Google default 15,200 x 9,600 resolution? Time to upgrade!
Posted by: Coop at September 3, 2008 11:56 AMI just assumed this was part of Google's Fitness plan. I've burned 400 calories just switching tabs this morning.
Posted by: Boriss at September 3, 2008 04:05 PM