Better than Good Enough

I use Gmail for my personal email. A while back, Google added some more themes for Gmail and, at some point, picked the one called, "Tree." A few weeks ago, I noticed something. Drops of water on my screen. I quickly figured out that they were part of the GMail interface. It appears that this theme (and others) are sensitive to the weather and change accordingly. I think that is so cool.

Now, this effect is simply eye candy. There is no additional functionality, no improved usability. Also, I can look out the window and see that it's raining. The changing theme is just something cool to look at, that's all. But, it is cool.

I like the effect for a couple of reasons. It makes a connection between my online world and my real world, worlds that I have mentally kept distinct and separate, subtly blurring them or merging them. Also, the "how'd they do that" factor appeals to the geek in me. It's a cool mash-up (composite,) determining my location (by IP? by my profile?) and pulling the weather report for that area to determine the images to display (the theme does show the sun on sunny days, too.)

I used to dismiss "features" like this as unimportant. Over time, however, I have come to see the value of eye-candy. Certainly, as a programmer, I place the highest importance on functionality and usability. Still, there is value in clean elegance and beauty and, in the right context, even whimsy.