I may be in a very small minority here, but I think over the past year or so Google have really upped their game with UI design.
- The redesign of the web services that happened around the time of the Google+ launch looks great. I was one of the people moaning about getting less gmail on my screen at first, but now I'm accustomed to it I wouldn't go back. The design right across their products from search to Gmail to Google+ looks sleek, modern and organized.
- The recent versions of Android, particularly JB & KitKat look fantastic. Although different to the web services, it's clear that they have started with the same principles of clean, modern design.
- The Google apps for iOS, particularly the Google Search and Google+ apps are some of the nicest looking on the platform. Chrome on the iPad makes Safari look like an OS 9 app!
At the same time Apple seem to be going backwards:
- iOS apps are looking quite dated now, grey with blue, shaded buttons looked nice on the original iPhone, but look tacky compared to the sleek, flat elements that Google uses.
- I really dislike the leather and wood type UIs on Contacts, Calendar, Pages, etc.
- iTunes on OS X and Windows looks like it should have had a complete redesign about 5 years ago.
- OS X is one of the better products from Apple in terms of design, but even Lion is beginning to look dated. Far too Grey, the window widgets look very 2005 era, some of the icons look very poor.