improving student email

I am very excited about the Live@Edu pilot program that is set to start this fall! The product has really grown on me in such a short amount of time. Since its feature set meets of exceeds Google Apps in almost every area, my biggest concern was how easy the user interface would be to navigate. I am not a native Outlook user, so I excpted some time to adjust.

After testing Live@Edu for a while, I've learned the user interface. It is definately different from Gmail, but it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Here are some screenshots that show a few of the key features and the user interface of Live@Edu. Click on the images to see them fullsize in a popup window.

1) Live@Edu features a stunning Web 2.0 interface. Users are presented with the classic 3 pane Outlook view. Right now I was unable to reorganize the panes, but this is a feature that is planned for the fall release. The inbox comes with 10 GB of storage space.

2) When composing emails, users can take advantage of auto complete which is generated from a built in global address book of all users and those users whom you have contacted before. This is a feature I am really excited about. You will no longer need to go to the WUSTL Directory to find an email address. Now, you can just start typing the name of your professor and the global address book will do all the work for you.

3) Live@Edu has a conversation view where users can easily access all the messages in an email thread no matter when they were sent. This is very similar if not identical to Gmail's conversation view.

4) Categories in Live@Edu function similar to labels in Gmail. Users can apply multiple categories to an email, and can also sort and search via categories. I really like the labels feature in Gmail so I was very happy to see that Live@Edu had a similar function. You can create custom labels and give them different colors, etc. This will allow fans of labels to organize using the same paradigm, but those who like folders (for whatever reason, lol) will still be able to use those as well.

5) Live@Edu comes with a built in personal calendar that is directly tied to email. For example, when users are sent emails with event invites, they can automatically be added to the Live@Edu calendar.

6) Users can make calendar events, invite other attendees, and book resources from the same window. Autocomplete works with the calendar as well. Making a calendar event is very similar to writing an email, so once you get used to one of them, you're used to the other.

7) The Live@Edu scheduling assistant puts the availability of all invitees and resources in the same window for easy scheduling. The scheduling assistant also shows suggested times along with how many invitees can attend during each time. I think this is a really cool feature. No more emailing back and forth to schedule a meeting. This is even easier than whenisgood.net.

8) Live@Edu allows users to view shared calendars side by side for quick reference.

9) Each Live@Edu user has a profile page that can be seamlessly connected with social networking websites like facebook and twitter. As you can see I have my facebook feed and the SU blog feed connected to my profile. You can also give yourself a status message at the top.

10) Each user has a 25 GB skydrive for file storage and sharing.

11) Live@Edu makes collaboration easy with Office Live workspaces. These workspaces allow users to share documents for various project types seamlessly. I like the different templates that come with the service...it makes collaboration even easier.