Gmail designer leaves Google

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The man responsible for designing the first version of Gmail has left Google for pastures new.

Kevin Fox, who also counts Google Calendar 1.0 and Google Reader 2.0. amongst is career achievements at the search giant, announced his departure late last week, in the form of a blog post informing people that he is off to join a small start-up.

Until Friday Fox served as senior user experience design lead at the company, having worked there since 2003 after a stint in a similar, but less senior, role at Yahoo.

"I can't say enough good things about the friends I've made and the talented people who have taught me so much," Fox said in his parting post. "When I started here I never could have guessed that I'd be helping create a world-class user experience team and products that so many strangers love. The experience will always be a reminder to recognise every opportunity not only for what it is, but for what it can become."

The name of Fox's new employer hasn't been made public as yet.

"...It's not just moving, it's excising a part of yourself, a strange cleaving of personal relationships that used to be about friendship and products, but is now just about friendship," he added.

"Will it be awkward when I talk with friends about the web and they have to censor themselves to prevent discussing confidential products? Even more novel, how easily will I adapt to working in an environment where we're far more open about the projects we're working on, to the point of evangelising them?"

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