More streamlined and less cluttered are key characteristics of the new version of the email service Microsoft is rolling out worldwide since mid-June 2010. With the advent of
Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4, the Redmond company has set up to redesign the service in accordance to the feedback received from users. The focus was placed on making Hotmail easier to use, while also dealing away with the information overload.
According to
Michael Kopcsak, Senior User Experience Lead, Windows Live, Microsoft turned to the core Windows User Experience Principles in order to catalyze the evolution of Windows Live Hotmail to Wave 4. Users will ultimately be the ones to judge as they will find themselves face to face with the revamped Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4.
“One of the things we hear about the most is inbox overload: folks want to find important emails quickly. Whether it’s an important back-and-forth conversation with friends or a YouTube video that brightened your day, it can be hard to find the messages that matter most. When we set out to design the new Hotmail, our main goal was to solve the problem of too much clutter,” Kopcsak explained.
“In addition to cleaning up the inbox, customers also told us they want to save time doing email. In response, we designed the email interface to make your message content come alive so that you can enjoy it from right in the email itself,” he added. Just as it is the case for additional Windows Live services and Windows Live Essentials rich client, the new Hotmail is also closely connected with a range of third-party services, Flickr, within the social networking universe. This is the case of Flickr, for example, but
Windows Live Hotmail Wav 4 also integrates Office in the Cloud functionality, via Office Web Apps on Windows Live SkyDrive.
Kopcsak enumerated some of the “design principles we used throughout the process: change is bad, unless it’s great; solve distractions, not discoverability; increase confidence by reducing concepts.”
Follow me on Twitter @MariusOiaga.
Find us on Google+
