Example 1

Figure 1 shows the top portion of the main cc:Mail window in V2. It contains a title bar, menu bar, and SmartIcon bar above the Inbox (which displays the new messages). The visible SmartIcons can be customized by the user, but by default are displayed as shown and listed in this picture. It can be readily seen that some of the most basic tasks were not accessible from this default set of icons, such as Reply and Send, but many less-often needed icons were included, such as Rules, User Setup, and Empty Trash. The revised SmartIcon bar is shown in Figure 2.


Figure 1

Switch, Inbox, Address Book, Prepare, Search, Rules, User Setup, Print, Help, Forward, Store, Create, Rename, Cascade, Tile, Delete, Empty Trash, Change Font, Exit

Figure 1. Before: Top Portion of cc:Mail for Windows V2 Main Window (icons listed in italics were removed)


The number of icons was only increased by two. Search was retained, but moved farther to the right, after the more common icons. Help was moved near the end to increase its visibility. Rules, User Setup, Rename, Cascade, Tile, Empty Trash, and Change Font were all removed from the default set. Reply, Send, Attach, Read Previous and Next Message, Save As, Save Draft, and Close Window were all added. The generic icon for Create was split up into two new icons to provide for its most often needed uses; Create Folder and Create Mailing List. In V2 there was no icon for Close Window, so an icon was created for this purpose. Prior to usability testing, it was not known that users had a difficult time with such a simple task as closing a window, as windows were maximized by default in cc:Mail V2. Icons removed and added are listed in italics below the figures.


Figure 2

Switch, Inbox, Address Book, Prepare, Reply, Forward, Send, Attach, Read Previous Message, Read Next Message, Print, Delete, Store, Save As, Save Draft, Search, Create Folder, Create Mailing List, Close Window, Help, Exit

Figure 2. After: Revised Set of SmartIcons (icons listed in italics were added)


Beginning of Document | Top of This Page (Example 1)
Example 2 | Example 3 | Example 4 | Example 5
Conclusions