Monday 9 April 2012

Email program options

Most of the time, I don't bother setting some Outlook options, because I can't find them. Next time you get a chance, try to count the Outlook configuration windows and map the buttons required to navigate between them. Why is this window design so complicated? Sometimes you can be three or four sub-windows deep to change some settings.

At the other end of the spectrum, and just as bad, is Thunderbird's advanced options editor. A big long list of key/value pairs that is searchable, but offers no real guidance on what the settings mean or which ones are related to which others (besides their names). There must be a middle ground somewhere that is more usable than Outlook but less daunting than Thunderbird.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I do think, in general, that Thunderbird's standard options window is better than Outlook's.
PPS - But then it has "Account Settings" and "Options" as separate menu commands with separate dialogue windows, too.

No comments: