Google, whoever the designer(s) for Google Currents are, fire them. No, seriously. They do not get to pass go, they do not get to collect $200. The UI decisions for this application are so blatantly poor, you have to question the abilities of those involved.

What The FITTS!

Lets assume for a moment that every button in the app is necessary (they aren’t, not a one). Who puts the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, directly above Android’s standard OS navigation. It breaks every design trend in the book. Design trends Google has set!

If it’s location wasn’t bad enough, you went ahead and made the buttons 33% smaller than similar action bars on other apps, and even 17% smaller than the Android OS navigation bar. It’s like you want people to fail.

Button, Buttons, Everywhere, And Not A Use For One

No, you are not drunk; you do not have double vision. You are seeing that correctly. There is a back button, placed directly above the Android OS back button. I don’t…I…my head hurts.

What’s the icon next to it? It brings up a list of all the articles. You know, all the articles that you’re already looking at on the screen above you. Redundant? Redundant?

What’s that tiny button on the far bottom right? A next page button? You mean the ability to gesture across the entire screen to get to the next page wasn’t enough? What, you didn’t think the affordance to do so wasn’t emphasized enough with the pager displayed directly in the bottom middle? Even if you thought that this control was necessary, you don’t provide a back page button. Doesn’t it stand to reason if a user can’t figure out how to page forward via gesture, they won’t be able to figure out how to page back?

Not to mention that paging is utterly broken. Try to page to the left, past page one, and you get a bounce effect that it can’t be done. Try to page past the last page to the right, do you get the same bounce effect? No! You get an article. Who…I mean…I think blood is coming out of my nose.

Take a look at that share button as well. It does NOTHING! It’s available when you’re not viewing an article. Touch it, and you’ll share a link to a blank page. The only thing the page contains is a recursive link back to itself, and a link to get the application for your device. Wha…it…no!

Conclusion

I want to punch something. I want to punch something so hard that it hurts as badly as I do.