Google Gemini’s Design: Echoes of 1984’s Macintosh?

A post on Google Design this week takes a look at the design and illustration of the Gemini app, with gradients playing a big role.

Google considers AI assistants to be an “uncharted design territory” akin to the original (Happy) Macintosh graphical user interface in 1984.

Using simple visual metaphors, [designer Susan Kare] made abstract digital processes tangible and intuitive for new users: a trash can, a paintbrush, a smiling computer face. Her icons weren’t just pixels; they were bridges between human understanding and machine logic.

Google says “Gemini faces a similar challenge around accessibility, visibility, and alleviating potential concerns.” This is in part due to its “always evolving nature” and general “conceptual gaps around AI.”

What is Gemini’s equivalent of Kare’s smiling computer face?

For Google, gradients are the answer to “gently guide users into the new collaborative world with Gemini” and offer an “amorphous, adaptable approach.”

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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.

In Gemini, gradients are used to:

• “…convey a transfer of energy and directional momentum, they feature sharp, almost opaque leading edges that diffuse at the tail, acting as clear visual pointers to direct user attention toward what’s most important.”
• “…make the system feel alive, our designers wanted to visualize Gemini’s process of active thinking and synthesis, which helps personify the AI assistant rather than rendering it impenetrable.”

Gemini Live and the overlay on Android, along with the icon, are the most prominent examples available today.

Google’s post includes several designs that the team explored, like alternative activation animations when holding the power button (current design: display shrink) or swiping from a corner (legacy Google Assistant light bar).

We also have a closer look at the loading, morphing animation on the Gemini homepage before the greeting and suggestions appear. It is inspired by Material 3 Expressive shapes.

Speaking of shapes, there’s a focus on the “fundamental shape of the circle.”

This choice was deliberate, as circles tend to convey simplicity, harmony, and comfort. Even Gemini’s own logo is thoughtfully constructed from the negative space of four adjoining circles.

Motion is an “essential guiding element” in Gemini’s design:

Each animation has a defined start and end point, creating a sense of directional flow that mirrors user actions. This sense of responsiveness helps users intuitively understand that the system is working with them. Inner activity within the motion conveys thinking, analysis, and intelligence, making Gemini’s processing feel more transparent. Motion allows users to see information coming together, visualizing Gemini’s conversations and listening abilities.

“Softness” is another quality:

When a system is hard to approach, the design must be soft. This softness — conveyed through guided, pulsing gradient shapes, clear language, and transparent signaling — allows users to engage with the new system feeling secure and supported. The gradient can be many things through its animations: aspirational and uplifting, directional and instructional. But they remain soft and direct, and always looking forward; they’re deeply connected to the Google brand with room to grow, like the personified gradient, rippling and responding to voice.

At the end of the day, Google wants to “make Gemini feel intuitive, immersive, approachable, aspirational — and, above all, trustworthy.”