I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
A week into BlackBerrying and I’m still enjoying what a much better mobile email experience the BB is.
Here are some examples.
1. The BlackBerry UI does not separate the Inbox and Sent Items. Everything - in and out - is in the single message list.
We saw the power of this model with ArchiveManager (AfterMail). When we do a search the results come back with out separating Sent and Received items. This is a much more natural interface.
The alternative (in Outlook) is that to see a conversation you need to flip between sent items and your Inbox, looking up and remembering dates.
This could be further enhanced with a quick filter for (all, sent only and received only). That would allow you to restrict the results but still see conversations in-line when required.
2. The BB places all messages (email and SMS) into the same Message List. It is an artificial distinction on Windows Mobile to have to navigate the tree between each email account. A further extension could be ‘filter by account’ similar to request above.
The work we’ve done with Phil has given me an appreciation for the importance of interaction design. Both of these examples show that MS hasn’t really thought about what the user is trying to achieve. The experience is dictated by the hierarchical data structure of both folders and user accounts.
The BB is a great example of how a little design and a different mindset can deliver a vastly superior end user experience.
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