With all kinds of awful websites on the internet, I want to look specifically into the user interface design in online E-Mail systems. I have tried out several different email systems and I think Yahoo Mail is among the worst that we can find currently.
Where are my mails?The front page after the user log in is not the inbox itself. Instead, it contains too much applications, updates, trending news sections, etc that can confuse the users easily. You have to look around and find the corner that shows you the unread mail notification, Check Mail button or find the Inbox tag to get to the inbox. I think as a "mail box", the conceptual model should be functions related to displaying/organizing/composing mails but not other add-on. Yahoo Mail made it the opposite.
Ta Da! Somewhere in the corner
One of the most important features in an email system is the spam filtering. For some reason, Yahoo has made it another way around. Based on my experience and many of my friends' testimonies, yahoo would put normal or even important mail into the spam box and offer a lot of real spams in the inbox. This can be very annoying and encourage users to switch to other email systems.
Also, when it comes to interface personalization, Yahoo has very limited option. You only get to choose the color but not the background or templates. It's easy to remove the modules but hard to find them back. Trying to explore the features Yahoo Mail provide is hard. It takes time to understand some of the features/buttons on a page. Sometimes it's even harder to re-apply what was there earlier(remove something and put it back again). I would say they did not do a good job in tip providing or interface navigation. One thing add to the personalization effort user has to put is the repeatedly password input requirement in some option tuning. As I don't see the security necessary on this but it will most likely drive user crazy.
Also, when it comes to interface personalization, Yahoo has very limited option. You only get to choose the color but not the background or templates. It's easy to remove the modules but hard to find them back. Trying to explore the features Yahoo Mail provide is hard. It takes time to understand some of the features/buttons on a page. Sometimes it's even harder to re-apply what was there earlier(remove something and put it back again). I would say they did not do a good job in tip providing or interface navigation. One thing add to the personalization effort user has to put is the repeatedly password input requirement in some option tuning. As I don't see the security necessary on this but it will most likely drive user crazy.
How do I apply these things?Lastly, the messy ad is always a big issue in Yahoo Mail. It can come out everywhere with little or no related information with what the user is interested in. (no user model training on the ad selection)
I thought finding a company that will help me provide all the services that all small business need is a tough one. Thank you for enlightening us about UI design.
ReplyDeleteUser Interface Design