Outlook 2013 takes a backward step in readability.
Grab a ruler and it’s easy to see how Microsoft has wasted screen space with Outlook 2013.
The message view with preview turned off uses about 20% more vertical space than Outlook 2007 – That means less messages visible on the screen at any one time and more scrolling through the list.
Above is a side-by-side comparison of Outlook 2013 with message preview off (the default is one line) and the default list in Outlook 2010.
The Outlook 2010 message list was efficient and compact. In Outlook 2013 it’s been expanded, possibly to suit the currently non-existent touch-screen users.
Outlook 2013 will show 11 messages while Outlook 2013 shows 14 in the same vertical height. It doesn’t sound like much but screen space should be used effectively, in particular for laptop screens.
That would not matter if the space was used for some good purpose but it’s not. There’s just white space that does nothing.
Looks like an example of Office 2013 changes to suit some irrelevant style decision rather than efficiency for customers.
