@Evan Bolin wrote:
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Note: This visual refresh will be available to Beta Channel users running build Version 2107 Build 14228.20000 or later on Windows 11 or Windows 10.
I am running Office 365 Version 2108 Build 14312.20008 (32-Bit). While I am seeing the Megaphone Icon and the Toggle switch, and while the Toggle switch activates a somewhat different design, this is still not exactly the design that has been announced as:
KORI LOOMIS wrote:
(7/14) UPDATE: The visual refresh is now available to 100 percent of Beta Channel users running Version 2108 Build 14301.20004 or later on Windows 11 or Windows 10. Thank you for your patience during this staged release.
This is what Outlook Build 14312.20008 looks like with the Toggle switch switched to "ON" -- at least the round corners are missing:
But even if the round corners were there, this is – at least in certain areas, see bubble text above – still unergonomic design, and therefore negatively impacting the orientation of the user and the usability of the program.
On top of that, I believe that this design, regrettably, is visually uninspiring to the eye.
This is particularly remarkable as just a few days ago, Outlook 365 had a design that I would almost refer to as the best Office design ever. With clear distinctions between the different functional and visual areas, and even with a tad of a 'material design' shadow below the Menu/Ribbon bar:
This is the kind of visual clarity that would inspire me every morning when firing up Outlook or Word and get me into the flow -- not the uniform mush that the current "Visual Refresh" is bringing along.
Particularly note the tremendous difference in clarity and visual distinction in the upper left corner area of the two above examples.
Moreover, nowadays our devices can display not only millions of colors as they have for decades, but meanwhile a billion of them. And Microsoft designers seriously don't manage to use more than one color for their icons – requiring the user to look at every single icon every time in order to figure out which one he's going to click?
While this kind of UI design may have been somewhat fashionable ten years ago when Jony Ive was trying to outdo Scott Forstall:
...it has proven to be unergonomic, wasting the time of millions of users every day with the unnecessary search for the right icon or button to press.
This is an example of great user interface design in 2021. Less fashionable, but with maximum usability through visual clarity and use of distinct colors:
There's also a minimalistic version, maximizing focus – and screen space:
PS: While color is already coming back to the icons in some places, which is to be applauded: who got the idea that buttons should look the same when pressed as when not pressed? This is the case, for example, with the button for "Work Offline" in Outlook, as well as with numerous buttons for text formatting, e.g. "Bold", "Italic", "Underlined" etc. in all Office applications.
It is only possible to recognize the pressed/not pressed state of the respective button once you have left the button with the mouse:
Please fix.
Thanks.
