Rethink the direction Outlook is going
The look and feel of Outlook as well as most of the other office applications is continuing to look worse and worse. It's becoming much more childish looking and less professional looking. Many of the sections take up way too much space on the screen. The most recent change to the top of a new message looks totally ridiculous. Why either boxes around To, CC and BCC and not around Subject for example?
Users should also be able to adjust the space between items in the Folder Pane, there is way too much whitespace between items and you have to spend too much time scrolling downward if you are using multiple email addresses.

15 comments
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Anonymous commented
Also, bring back colors for the icons in the quick access bar. They're almost indistuingishable from each other now, which slows down work and therefore reduces productivity.
The change in design in Office 365 was clearly a choice of design over functionality.
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Anonymous commented
It used to be that folders with unread items used a bold font. This helped a lot! Now with only a number of unread items showing up it's too easy to overlook that there's a new item in a folder.
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Anonymous commented
Agreed, Outlook (and most office apps) have stupidly big icons and don't convey useful information like older versions.
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Nisse Hult commented
In general, Outlook gets worse with each new release. Now days you can't even scroll the inbox! When scrolling te list of emails is not updated/redrawn until you release the scroll bar handle.
So just stop changing stuff unless there's a huge vote fore something on here. Don't think that you "know" what users want, because you don't!
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M.T. commented
I absolutely second the "reclaim screen estate" space argument for a DESKTOP software. One more item here:
If I choose to see only folder list and message list (so no preview pane) then the title bar of the message list becomes a huge "black hole" as 3 elements that could easily fit in one line are stretched out over two rows with looots of space around them: search bar, "Show all/unread" selector and "Filter/Sort/Group" dropdown.
And B.T.W. the two letter items are duplicates in function even more so as we have all these settings either in the "View" ribbon or in the header bar of the message list.
So you might as well allow us to hide these redundant elements and leave only the search bar. -
Rizwan Wasi commented
I agree with Mark regarding his comments on the looks of all applications becoming worse and worse and very childish. Outlook now looks as if it is sketched by primary school kids in their drawing class. I hate to open it now. It seems you people are running out of ideas. Hire creative people.
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Leslie commented
Yes! I dislike the changes ever since Office 365! I am always having to help my husband with everything from sending an e-mail to navigating Internet Search engines & websites. I hat the changes myself! Too many of the useful applications are missing or no longer available, i.e. Out of Office replies!!! Finally, I do not like the drill down bar on the right. It's impossible to use with the newer more sensitive Laptops (HP) and Lenovo! Ugh!
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Anonymous commented
HELLOOOOOO..... it's a DESKTOP app! Stop the whitespace to allow fingers; it's not needed with the DESKTOP app where most users will use mice and where most users wish to be productively/efficiently viewing as much CONTENT as possible rather than controls for fingers. Let those people use the APP on their tablets!
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Paul Cechovic commented
This thread is right on. How about giving us some icons that people like me (77) can see? Just add some color. Yes, you can also make them smaller, but they can all be mostly WHITE?
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No commented
The contrast between new mail background and text selection/highlight color in the headers is too low. It is nearly impossible to tell when you've selected an item in the header (recipient name, subject text, etc.). Category colors in mail item windows also does not match the color ascribed to the category. It is severely lightened, again making it barely noticeable. For someone who lives within email categories, this change is a huge disappointment.
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Nicole Munson commented
I think the line format on the new message is horrible! I can see many emails being sent out with no subject in the box because you cannot see it clearly. Dislike this whole format entirely.
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Rudolf Meyer commented
Appointment and Mail layout has dramatically worsened.
Header information is occupying *far* too much space, so space for notes, e.g. for an agenda is scrolling within a few columns. -
T commented
The ribbon is extremely frustrating. Finding items in menus is dead simple (as is using the old-school shortcuts).
Finding items in the ribbons is not at all quick, and chords are just a joke. I literally never use them.
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M. S. commented
I also do not like the new 'wasting screen space' direction in new Outlook versions. This maybe fine for touch screen users, but not for users with mouse and keyboard.
How about adding an global option "Touch Screen Optimized" which can be turned of by users with mouse and restores the old layout? -
Darkhorse65 commented
The boxes around To, Cc and Bcc are actually buttons that open up the address book(s). You don't need to go searching for anything for a subject, do you? And these buttons have been around for years.
What am I missing here?