Microsoft UI Sucks
Can someone explain to me why in the wide, wide world of sports would Microsoft develop Teams, a clear counterpart to Outlook, with a completely different look and feel?
On macOS, they don’t even use the same UI font. Outlook uses the system font (San Francisco) and Teams uses the Windows system font (Segoe UI), and of course, it cannot be changed via preferences, and they’ve apparently embedded Segoe in the app, since I don’t have it installed anywhere on my devices.
I am, primarily, using the macOS versions of these tools, not Windows. As much as Microsoft pretends to keep these tools in sync with their Windows counterparts, there are big misses, like these UI differences between Outlook and Teams.
Many have replied to a post I made on Reddit that Outlook and Teams are different apps used for different purposes. Gee, no shit. So are Word and Powerpoint.
My point is, if you’re going to attempt to create an ecosystem of tools like Office 365, you should, at a minimum, use a basic design system for your UX. Fonts, colors, buttons, menus, etc.
I should be able to jump between every, single Office 365 app and not wonder where to click for the same function I just used, or having one use Arial, another Segoe UI, and yet another San Francisco.
Apple has a design system. Google has a design system.
Microsoft, not so much.