The Good, The Bad and The Ugly! iPhone interface of Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
Greetings readers. Today I would like to share my thoughts on various mobile phone user interfaces. There is a common comment by most of the techies – Microsoft is well behind the web technologies. For some reasons, they are proving the techies are correct.
What made me write this ?
Yesterday I happened to use my old Hotmail account in my iPhone. It was such a shocking experience to see Microsoft is well behind in web technologies and they couldnt understand the needs of this generation.
What I am targeting ?
I want Microsoft to improve their UI for mobile phones. I believe there are still a few Hotmail users left in this world. I am dedicating this post for them.
Screenshots and comparison are .. ?
.. real, took from my iPhone. (Screenshots are in the order Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail)
Can someone re post this ?
Yes of course, drop a courtesy link to my Blog.
So here we go..
1. Login
Gmail: Perfect one. Simple layout and consistent color combi.
Yahoo: Simple but weird. See the footer! No save password, create id, forgot password links.
Hotmail: Good interface. But there is no default zoom for text fields.
2. Inbox
Gmail: Simple, Readable, Usable. More items in single view and i love it
Yahoo: Wierd, space not managed, poor usability (Menu)
Hotmail: Pathetic. Even I can’t see what’s happening in my inbox! There is no default zoom. Very bad UI. I didn’t have to mask any of my personal details (as if I could read)
3. Read
Gmail: Simple, Readable, Usable. But the header hogged a bit of space. Inbox, Archive, More, Delete could come in 1 row
Yahoo: Wierd. Header banner could have avoided. Not a pleasing UI
Hotmail: Pathetic UI. Can’t read even a single word. No default Zoom. Why are they having such a mobile theme?
4. Reply
Gmail: Good stuff. Again the header space is more. Rest is just perfect.
Yahoo: Poor usability. Disturbing textarea font size. No default zoom. Cant save draft, edit subject. Smaller textarea.
Hotmail: Oh my god! What is this theme for ? No zoom! A reply window showing the title ‘New message’ ? My finger is not small enough to touch this screen. Horrible stuff.
5. Folders
Gmail: Simple, typical palm device interface.
Yahoo: Simple but wierd. Hopefully 8,4,5,0 are shortcuts. How will I do that in a touch screen phone ?
Hotmail: I cant predict which text will be selected if I try to touch any of the links. It’s that small! .. and pathetic footer.
6. Footer
Gmail: Simple, perfect and has got only required items.
Yahoo: Simple but not readable. Poor usability.
Hotmail: inconsistency is the key to extreme failure! Same poor UI, not readable and bad usability.
Now it’s up to the readers to correct me. You an try this out in your own iPhone. I have only one message to Microsoft – Please don’t take mobile users for granted!
That’s all
Saif
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Comments (12)
Imthiaz Rafiq
March 30th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Good comparison.
Remiz
March 31st, 2009 at 10:36 am
I’m using Gmail in mobile (N6080) for more than an year. What I see now in iPhone is an entirely different UI adapted for iPhone. GooG is great.
Yahoo is having same interface for last one year. Still they are having same interface for both Mobile and iPhone. They have recently tweaked desktop UI and surely will do change iPhone UI soon.
Microsoft! Sorry dude. I never tried to access it on mobile
. I signed up for hotmail account when I joined Flip as our internal conversation tool.
MS for PC ( as we dont have MAC now), Gadget iPhone, Cloud is Google
Praveen Vijayan
March 31st, 2009 at 10:49 am
Its a cool comparison. great!!.
Zam
March 31st, 2009 at 11:58 am
Google rocks. Nice work & Keep up the pace.
Arun
March 31st, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I tried both yahoo mail and gmail in my Nokia 3500 classic, using mobile browser and mail application.
Gmail application is very simple, lightweight and very fast. Offline mail, multiple account, easy to switch to other account etc etc. Itz simply gr8 and I am loving it.
Yahoo application is heavy, taking a lot of time to load, using much bandwidth etc etc.
I think no need to talk about MSN/Hotmail
When it comes to normal mail, my preference is 1)Gmail, 2)Hotmail and 3) Yahoo. Yahoo spam filter really sucks.
Phil Glockner
March 31st, 2009 at 10:58 pm
The only objection I’d make to this comparison is that Gmail mobile is ‘optimized’ for the iPhone, while the other two mail platforms are not. To make the comparison more fair, you should test all three on a different web-enabled phone, like a Blackberry and see if Google is still far and away the best to use.
Alternatively, you can point out that both Google and Yahoo (not sure about Windows Live) can be set up with POP/IMAP access allowing you to retrieve messages using the iPhones native mail application. This would in theory be the best way to view mail on an iPhone, since it is an iPhone-optimized application and also retrieves mail even if the phone is in standby.
Anne H
March 31st, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Nice comparison. The side-by-side screen shots nicely highlight the differences between the three vendors.
Lihsa
March 31st, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Nicely done! Thanks.
Squealing Rat
April 1st, 2009 at 3:43 am
Just to sum the article up- Gmail is the simplest and best, others are weird and terrible.
Aditya DIpankar
April 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I surely second Saif on this opinion and must say great writing and comparison here.
I am myself a Gmail for mobile user and have experienced that it’s the most convenient, cleanest and easiest to use mailing application for the mobile.
Kudos!
links for 2009-04-01 « David Black
April 1st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
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