Here’s another example of amateur design critique: Elizabeth Lopatto raises questions to the Google Docs design team about the recent redesign. It’s the same knee-jerk reaction we see on Twitter and elsewhere whenever a popular product changes its appearance. In this case: Someone hates the round corners on some buttons, and look here, these buttons are square. It’s supposed to be satire, but satire only works if it’s aimed at something.

Google Docs’ functionality has stayed the same. It just looks a little different. If you think for a second, if you engage and look at which buttons are round and which are square, you’ll see there’s a system, as one comment sums up nicely:

CTA-buttons (typically “submit” buttons in forms) are rounded squares to differentiate them from smaller actions which can easily be changed, those actions are squared (Input fields, smaller actions like font size, bold etc.)

The toolbar placed in a rounded section is to make it clear that these actions are similar (a normal gestalt-principle). It follows the Material You-style that Google is using across their apps. It’s shape is a bit unusual, which can be a bit off putting at first - but it is a clear brand/marketing strategy - any screenshot of Google docs is clearly identified as a Google-product.