Shoutbox

OK, some more constructive feedback after the first WTF...

The screenshots definitely give little context and I understand this is an early build. Someone who I'm sure played with the actual software agrees the screenshots look like crap, but says the real experience is much better (http://twitter.com/SiebeTolsma/status/6538209519), so that gives some hope. The screenshots don't show that much either, and the parts we do see are heavily edited for obvious reasons.



Having that said, what's wrong with the small part we do see?

* Huge ad
This is definitely my biggest complaint. The advertisement on the contacts list is huge, there's no excuse for an ad that big in software which runs on my desktop. You can pull of ads that size on a site, not in software. The ad in the current version already is big enough as it is, keep it that same size or smaller. Even if that ad would not be there all the time, but shows up at certain intervals, it's still too intrusive and taking up too much precious pixels.


* Oversized fonts
Several texts are too big, again wasting precious pixels which are limited on a desktop. Keep n mind most people have their contacts list open on the side of their desktop during most of the time. The bigger the contacts list window gets, the less usable the application.
- 'Other Contacts' should have the same size as in the old (2009) version.
- 'Social/Friends/Highlights/Recent' should be the same size as 'All/Available/Other Contacts/Blocked'.
- 'Xxx updated Twitter' should be the same size as the names of the contacts on the right.
- The actual twitter message is blanked out, but shouldn't be much bigger than the name of contacts either.


* Social stream next to contacts list is odd
The way the social stream is displayed next to the contacts list doesn't makes the window unnecessary big. I assume the button in the upper-right corner hides the social stream. Hopefully the social stream is hidden by default, but it could be implemented better. I understand you need to be able to scroll through both lists individually, but having a scrollbar in the middle is odd. Do that many people want to watch their contacts list and the social stream at the same time? Why not have a button to just switch between the contacts list and the social stream. So it would either show the left side, or the right side of what we see in the screenshot, not both in a huge window.



The tabbed chats feature is nice, and about time. The screenshot does show four layers, but even in Messenger 2009 the menu bar was always hidden by default, and the action bar (Files/Video/Call/etc.) can be hidden if you want. I imagine tabbed chats can be disabled completely if you want.

The 'Connected to .. | Add' on the lower-right of the contacts list is interesting. I *think* it connects to other social networks, not other IM networks. Purely speculating, but it shows the Windows Live icon, not the Messenger icon, which would hint more at the social network aspect. Adding the social stream and the bigger 'Share something new' box to that I think they are more focused on integrating other social networks than other instant messaging networks. It would however be great if we were able to talk to AIM/GTalk/Skype contacts from inside Messenger.