There's not much more to say than the title of the post really, but this blogoscoped post does capture so much of what is vexing about using Hotmail (which I do, occasionally - once a fortnight, actually, to keep the address I have alive).
Shall we list them? Design too busy; too little consideration of users (sort of like the first, really); not enough space to read text of your emails, which is sort of why you came there in the first place.
I think that one comment alone captures it:
Furthermore, we will change the browser URL from http://gmail.microsoft.com to the more professional looking http://by114w.bay114.gmail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?rru=home.
What if anytime you used Google it gave you a URL such as http://server90.room350.floor9.docklands.google.com as the "place" you were actually searching through? It would look weird - and open you up to phishing. Yet Hotmail does this all the time.
And if you've forgotten the "If Microsoft did the iPod" self-parody (for it was done by folk within the company as they considered how best to do the Zune - hmm, yes - then you can watch it here. For my money, it remains one of the most biting pieces of satire I've seen in ages. (OK, discounting The Thick Of It.)
No doubt someone will animate the blogoscoped post and have that on YouTube in short order. What will Microsoft be deemed to need to redesign next? And do you think it'll get the hint? Ever?
