Microsoft improves settings UI for Outlook Web App with new intuitive tree interface

Staff Writer

Microsoft improves settings UI for Outlook Web App with a new intuitive tree interface

Microsoft is continuing their improvements and response to user feedback by improving the settings in the Outlook Web App (not Outlook.com). The improvements focus on a cleaner User Interface while still improving discoverability, and a better experience for tablet users. Also, this will enable the team to add features in the future while keeping the settings familiar.

Currently, if you click the gear icon (upper right), and select an option you go to this pane:

Current Outlook Web App options

In the future, following these steps will take you to:

New Outlook Web App options

This new interface offers an options tree on the left that houses all your settings. Each subset of options is nested in an appropriate section. For example if you want to mark a message as read, you can expand the ‘Automatic procession’ to click on that option directly. This is also more intuitive to users that have used other software such as Office for Desktop which follows a similar settings structure.

These improvements will be hitting the Outlook Web App for Devices mobile apps, and on tablets you will have the entire options that are currently available only to web users. On phones, the options will remain limited to those ‘best suited to that layout.’ These changes will be rolling out in the coming months for all users. There are a few options not added to the new interface, and those are still accessible through get icon or through ‘Other’ on the bottom of the new interface’s tree.