There are a ton of people out there, maybe yourself included, that use a 1024×768 resolution either via a size-down utility like Sizer or as your native resolution. When using webmail there are certain providers that are better than others. Let’s take a look.
Hotmail
Pros
- Left sidebar is easy to navigate
- Left sidebar menus can be expanded/collapsed (expanded by default) to get more space
- Headers can be expanded/collapsed (collapsed by default for extra reading space)
Cons
- Contacts and Calendar links are by default at extreme bottom left unless you collapse all your sidebar menus
- Configuration links hidden as gear-style icons unless you hover over "Inbox", "Folders" or "Messenger" on sidebar
- If preview pane is enabled, scrolling is involved even for super-short messages
Yahoo! Mail Beta
Pros
- Folders, Contacts and Applications collapsible on sidebar
- Has in-session tabs – and they work well
- Mail functions are actual buttons instead of text links
Cons
- Apps are periodically added into the sidebar you didn’t ask for at all, potentially adding scrolling
- Ridiculously animated advertisements that take up way too much screen space
- Horizontal scrollbar when reading any message under 1280-pixel-wide res; completely hides "Show Details" button at far right when viewing message
Gmail
Pros
- Only email where the mail search bar is in the proper place (center top)
- Only email where the contacts are in the proper place (top left)
- Uses real buttons for most message actions
Cons
- Sidebar is not resizable
- "Settings" screen has overlapping menu options in the gold area
- Least amount of messages display in inbox view is 25, causing scrolling
Project Phoenix (Upcoming AOL Mail)
Pros
- Top bar makes composing email possibly the easiest ever, especially considering Send button is right there as well (no need to ‘compose new email’)
- Great use of tabs and much cleaner than Yahoo! Mail Beta
- Simplified button structure
Cons
- Has a tiny bit of horizontal scroll at 1024×768
- Contacts link is buried at bottom left
- Search mail function slammed to the right
Which is the best for a small resolution?
Gmail is the best, followed very closely by Project Phoenix. Both give you all the mail functions you want within easy reach, but Gmail takes up the least space and you never see horizontal scrolling anywhere in the Gmail interface @ 1024×768.
In fact, Gmail’s UI is so well done concerning screen space that it’s even functional at 800×600 with just a tiny bit of horizontal scrolling:
In this day and age, that’s pretty amazing and a testament to good UI design.
For you super-big monitor users out there, this is actually good to know because you can size down a Gmail browser window a good deal so you can fit more of your other stuff on your desktop.
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