Outlook 2013. Oh dear.
by Volker Weber
Look at this screenshot. Spot the area that contains the body text.
Comments
you mean you don't like that?
Wait that's supposed to be an upgrade right? I mean there is so much I don't like about Outlook:Mac and everyone has their opinion about Notes, but that's just terrible.
What's your problem here?
What a mess - perhaps you need to select "clean up"?
I don't get it either. It doesn't look that much different from Outlook 2010...
The problem is that the world has evolved since 2010 was created. And Microsoft seems to be unable to adjust.
It seems buttons are out - only blank fields with pictures and text, but no clearly marked buttons anymore. I liked buttons.
Just installed the new version of Office, including Outlook and configured my Exchange account. All I can say is I don't think that screenshot does it justice.
It's a mess. No other way to describe it. Sorry.
Mick
"... the horror ... the horror ..."
I assume most of the negative comments here do not use Office and/or Outlook on a daily Basis. The screenshot is indeed horrible but... I know nobody - not in Microsoft or with my customers - who uses Outlook in a layout like that.
I would like to encourage everybody to have a look on the official site and watch the video to see the reduced layout of all Office products.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en?WT.mc_id=MSCOM_EN_US_HP_FEATUREHOME_131L1ENUS21367
BTW, OneNote on a Windows 8 tablet device is just huge.
Darren Adams works for Microsoft.
May I safely assume Ingo Seifert does too?
Remembers me a bit of the Notes IMAP template disaster. The user is doing it wrong.
The screen layout is horrible and what happened to the once beautiful Ribbon interface?
Indeed the OneNote interface looks much better. Does it connect to Exchange with mail and calendaring?
Henning, it is not really a secret that I am with Microsoft. And at least Volker knows that I am quite critical about everything we do here. But from time to time, I like what we do. And it happens more often every month.
I do not like this "The interface is horrible... yadda yadda". From my perspective, and iPhone interface is horrible as compared to Windows Phone and even longtime iPhone users say so. Would they change because of that? I personally don't think so.
I think that there is always a hard learning curve if you are confronted with a user interface and - I think it is a psychological matter of fact - people do not like new intefaces (well, I once loved the Notes interface, believe that...). I like Outlook and even the new Version because I can adopt its interface to my specific needs. Actually, I would hate it if it looked the way as presented in the screenshot above. Maybe there are other people who would like it like that. Perfect.
Microsoft just isn't cool anymore; the times have changed. It doesn't really matter what they do. Apple and Google have the emotions of the people, the same that Microsoft once had.
Regarding Outlook 2013 I see nothing wrong with it. One picture does not equate to usability. I think everyone should test it first before making condemnation from a single JPG. And I'm not a Microsoft employee.
Ars Technica?
.::AleX::.
Outlook 2013 looks flat and colorless. There's still 5.5 months to 2013, so maybe there's still time for the UI design team to rethink this. Based soley on this picture, I don't see any reason from a useability standpoint to upgrade from Outlook 2010. Nothing says, "gotta have this."
I am very curious how Microsoft solves the problem to make this software available for touch and for mouse input.
'To Manager'. Their training is superior.
Well Ingo, you're right - I don't use Outlook and haven't for some time. I've never used the more recent products like Outlook 2010.
Maybe it looks better configured differently, but the screenshot shows a menu area which is a horrible muddle of (flat) icons and a few pure text areas - all jumbled together in an assortment of shapes, scrolled regions and sizes. With text below the icons and to the side of the icons. It's not exactly a easy on the eyes, or the brain, is it?
I'm glad I don't have to work with it.
