Outlook 2007 beta 2: screenshots, commentary
CNet News carries a gallery of screenshots 
of the latest Outlook beta with commentary.
The fourteen images cover everything from the main window (see below) to the Compose Window (featuring a message in plain text!) to various preference options.
In the main window the most notable new thing is the To-Do Bar on the right of the window:
The beta continues the Microsoft design philosophy of overwhelming the user with options and buttons. Compare the Contact card in Outlook 2007b2 to the interface in Address Book:
See the screenshot of the Compose window toolbar for a further example.
According to a separate report on CNet , Office 2007 is now scheduled for release in January 2007 (or maybe later ).
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Tags: beta 2, email, interface design, microsoft, office 2007, outlook 2007, screenshots
May 24th, 2006 at 9:06 am
I can’t help but notice how similar some of the calendar stuff looks to iCal and OS X in general. But my god the colors and the amount of data is overwhelming.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:17 am
For a complete Windows rip-off of iCal, check out Monocalendar
and this video demo 
of how it works.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Outlook 2007 Beta 2 Screenshots, Commentary…
Outlook 2007 beta 2 screenshots, commentary. Microsoft has always done exceptional work on their Mac Office suite and it seems like they are continuing that trend. The screenshots look to be a rather neat upgrade to one of the most widely used Office a…
May 24th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
My gosh! What were those guys thinking when they made this interface for the contact card? (Maybe in some real bad dictators and assassins who they wanna torture).
I have no idea how can someone use it.
May 25th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Goodness graciuos me. That is a very ugly interface. It looks like a fisher price toy for color blind chimpanzees, it also reminds me of visual representation of a hangover I once had.
It makes me think that the design team meeting went down something like this,
“We need color, yes we need color, Light blue, some yellow, and ugly grey boxes, and 1000′s of icons of verying sizes, ah yes and those ugly yellow folders, lets not forget to put those in there, yes and throw some red things in there two, and lets make some icons bigger than the others, I like telephones, stick a big telephone in there too will you?… great team I think thats it then, lets leave it to the interns to finish up, and lets go to lunch.”
May 25th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I agree that it looks very “busy” and visually confusing.
The only way that I could work it would be to train myself not to see all the options. But then what’s the point of having them there?