By David Gewirtz
As we move forward into integrating Outlook 2007 into our lives, we'll be exploring the new software from a wide variety of perspectives. In this interesting interview, we've had the opportunity to talk with Deva Hazarika, founder and CEO of ClearContext Corporation, a maker of a popular email organization add-on to Outlook.
Deva's been hard at work updating the ClearContext Information Management System, but took a few minutes to answer OutlookPower Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz' questions about Outlook 2007 from the developer's perspective.
David:Tell us about yourself.
Deva:I'm the founder and CEO of ClearContext, a company that builds products to help Outlook users manage their information more effectively. In the ten years prior to ClearContext, I was an information systems consultant for large companies, then founded and built Moai Technologies, an enterprise software company. In both of those jobs one of my major day-to-day struggles was keeping up with the massive volume of email I received, which led me to starting ClearContext.
David:What do you think of Outlook 2007?
Deva:My initial impression was that not that much has really changed. While there are some changes and improvements in things like task, calendar and category integration across all of Outlook, the general user experience is very similar to prior Outlook versions.
After using the software for a little longer, though, a couple of things stand out. The most noticeable and high impact is the vastly improved search capability. This is something that has long been needed in Outlook and users have up until now been forced to use third-party applications for Outlook search.
The easier navigation provided by the Ribbon UI is another feature that definitely improves the user experience with Outlook 2007.
David:What are the hidden features in Outlook 2007 you think customers will be delighted to discover?
Deva:The To-Do bar in the main pane showing your upcoming appointments and tasks is going to be a big hit. It shares some characteristics with the Outlook Today page, but having all of this information in the same place as the Inbox makes it infinitely more useful. The new views integrating Tasks into the Calendar views will also be much appreciated by users.
David:With spam and other security issues, do you think email will continue to grow or become top-heavy and break?
