Submission details
Return icons and color to the UI (especially Windows Live Mail
In Wave 2, each button along the top tool bar had an associated icon, and folders along the left in the different accounts had different icons, and different accounts were in different color sets.
Please return this! It is MUCH easier to see the red "X" for delete, than to have to read the entire bar until you find the button that says delete! And the washed out colors make it difficult to find and see things, especially for older users (like my parents).
A minor note along the same lines, the button used to check for new mail was changed to "Sync". This is jargony and doesn't mean anything to people like my parents. Return it back to "check for new mail" or "send/receive mail". The interface got a lot less usable and intuitive between wave 2 and wave 3, and the washed out colors, sameness, and utter lack of graphic icons makes it much more difficult and less efficient to use.
Bring back the icons in the toolbar buttons and in the folder/account pane on the left!
High
High
Not fixed
Discussion (9 comments)
+1 for the icons, +1 to the colors IF the current colors will be selectable, too, -1 to the Sync -> Send/Receive or Check for new mail. Tell your parents what does Sync mean. Is it so hard?
2 positive points and only one negative, so +1!
+1. I could care less if it was an option and no icons were defalut. Just give us the OPTION
and a million + for the colors. The washed out look is UGLY
+1 pmbAustin said, "Bring back the icons in the toolbar buttons and in the folder/account pane on the left!"
Please do! Icons...That is what windows and the GUI is all about! What's next, a CLI for a tool bar in Wave 4? And the washed out colors, I thought Wave 2 was a little washed out but was able to darken it up. Come on Redmond, we see enough washed out colors in our grey gloom of the PNW. Please let me make it as bold and bright as I want and invert the tool bar text with dark colors like Wave 2. User control and OPTIONS!
I have used Wave 2 from the time OE stopped working for live mail acounts. Wave 2 will be staying on my xp. For my Windows 7, I'll be looking elsewhere 'til you "Live"n it up!
I totally agree with the original submission. I have just installed windows live mail and find it almost unuseable due to the washed out look. It actually will give me a headache if I look at it long enough. The "colorizer" is a joke......right?
Also BRING BACK MY ICONS!!
Please ?
Hopefully the new "Ribbon" version of the UI will make this all a moot point. Fingers crossed for Wave 4...
Please bring back the icons and un-washed out colors. It is so helpful to people used to seeing the X for delete. Icons are a visual shortcut for our eyes. You got us used to it, now you want to take it away. Please, at least give us a choice. Let us download a visual or iconic toolbar if we please.
I just migrated this week from Windows Mail to Windows Live Mail. Having very limited options as far as menu button sizing, font sizing and colors make this one of the most user un-friendly interfaces that I've ever seen. What was Microsoft thinking? Please give users an upgrade or make an add-on available to correct the issue. If not, it's a matter of time before I switch to Thunderbird or one of the other e-mail clients on the market. Please advise if anyone knows of a solution. Thanks! Terry
Are you trying the Windows Live Mail Wave 4 beta that's out now?
I certainly like it a lot better than the Wave 3 version.
Just replaced Wave 3 with Windows Live Mail Wave 4 beta. A little more pleasing to the palate. Thanks!
pmbAustin wrote on June 21, 2009, 4:34pm
Changed solution description.