beta @ amanzi

Following on from my last post about how not to design a webmail service, this post looks at how not to design a desktop mail application. The short answer to this question is: don’t copy a poorly-designed web-based service and turn it into a desktop application!

This is, of course, referring to Microsoft’s announcement that they are now releasing another desktop mail client called Windows Live Mail Desktop. There are so many things wrong with this that I don’t even know where to start! Let’s look at a screenshot of the new, yet-to-be-rekeased application taken from a post from Bryan Starbuck’s blog:

What’s the first thing that jumps out at you – yes, the large, obtrusive advert! It’s bad enough that we have to put up with these on the internet, but in a desktop application…? The rest of the design looks a lot better than the web-based version as there are less scroll bars and the header loses the other big advert. But the announcement of this applications raises more questions – does Microsoft need another mail client, when will Microsoft change their naming policy, why doesn’t Microsoft have any direction???

At the moment Microsoft has Outlook Express, Outlook, and Hotmail as their released (not beta) mail clients. There is also Entourage for the Mac but I’m going to group this under Outlook as it is the Mac equivalent. There is also the new Windows Mail client which is currently under development and will be released with Windows Vista. Windows Vista will also see the release of the Windows Calendar application which will compliment the Mail client nicely. I’m excited about these two applications because they aim to accomplish what the Mac platform has had for a few years now – free calendar and mail applications built into the OS. Windows Live Mail (although currently poorly-designed) looks to achieve the web-based version of this. Where does the Windows Live Mail Desktop application fit into the mix? Why would you want to install it on Windows Vista which has the mail and calendar applications already? Why would you install it on a Windows XP system if the user already has months/years of email in Outlook Express or Outlook? I guess we’ll have to wait to see…

As for the name for the application – Windows Live Mail Desktop – what a mouthful! And what’s the bet when it’s released there will be a year on the end too? Microsoft’s naming conventions and multiple product versions have long been scrutinised and have recently been highlighted again on the net. The first was this video of how Microsoft would have released the iPod had they designed it – the end result of the parody was that the iPod would have been called the “Microsoft I-Pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition With Subscription.” Secondly, Paul Thurrot revealed Microsoft’s final Windows Vista versions – all 8 of them (or 17 if you count 32bit and 64bit seperately.) Compare this to Apple’s operating system: OSX. That’s it, one version with everything in it.

It must be difficult to run such a big company as Microsoft – but to have each division releasing their own mail client is just ridiculous. When will Microsoft get direction – who knows, but Robert Scoble recently commented on his blog that the above-mentioned video hurts, because he knows it’s true!

Comments welcome…