Hotmail

=__HOTMAIL__=

Hotmail does not need an introduction, but just incase you have been living in a cave for the past decade; it is among the most popular websites on the world wide web. Hotmail was originally founded by Sabeer Bhatia along with Jack Smith in 1995 but became public on the web in 1996. It is one of the first e-mail accessing web service on the web that was intended to get by the corporate firewalls which blocked the regular mail services. As it began to gain publicity and lots of users, it was bought out by Microsoft in 1997 for 400 million US dollars. Now, Hotmail has approximately 240 million users and is the biggest and most used e-mail website on the web. What contributes to the success of hotmail?

//Some usability goals that comply with Hotmail://


 * Effectiveness:** This is one of the most basic yet most essential aspects of a web emailing service. Of course most e-mail websites provide good functionality and they would have to in order to keep up considering the mass competition that exists today. But what makes hotmail more than just able to send emails is its reliability factor. With other e-mail services, although you can perform the same functionality with them, with Hotmail, there are less chances of your e-mail’s being misplaced or ‘lost’. Some emails can be really important, and Hotmail has gained the trust of their users and rightfully so because it is more reliable than any other e-mail website.


 * Safety:** One of the specialties of hotmail is the safety that it offers to its users. Hotmail protects its users from hackers and at the same time provides good support if the user has forgotten their password. First off, Hotmail uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which is a communications protocol that allows the transmission of private information over the web. The way SSL works is that it encrypts data before transferring it, so the sign-in name and password are both encrypted so no one can read the data even if they accessed it. In addition, after you log in and leave the encrypted connection, Hotmail uses a computer-generated key rather than your login information to keep track of who you are thus making it difficult for someone to pose as you. Furthermore, if the user is using a public or shared computer, it gives you an option to inform Hotmail so no one can use the cache to access the content or information from your account. Furthermore, Hotmail has a built in virus scanner that prevents the spread of viruses and automatically blocks content from sending/receiving that can be harmful to your computer.


 * Utility:** The nature of e-mail has evolved from what its intended purpose to what it’s capable of doing now. Now days, e-mail is way more than just text, it’s become enormously multimedia based. Hotmail provides the right mix of functionality and gives users a lot of functions to work with. Aside from text, users can send just about any kind of file, the more common ones being pictures and movie clips. In fact, hotmail has its own photo uploader that converts the photos to a more [[image:hotmail.jpg width="393" height="334" align="left"]]appropriate size and format for faster transfer and convenience in downloading for the recipient. Other features include sending greeting cards for occasions and birthdays that add more of a touch than just ordinary emails.


 * Learnability:** One of the main reasons why even the beginners get so comfortable using hotmail is because it is simple, straightforward and easy to learn. The user interface that hotmail uses is easy to use, uncomplicated and trouble-free. The important functions are right there, so there isn’t any difficulty digging in to menus after menu’s to get the task done, everything is laid out for the user to choose and mails clearly displayed on the main page. There is not much for the user to learn, and is mainly about is mostly about knowing where buttons are where and even that Hotmail does a good job clearly identifying or displaying the buttons.

We have analyzed hotmail from a design perspective and identified some of the usability goals that contribute to its success. It just verifies that these design principles and usability goals are the foundation for a successful product or service. Hotmail is an example that shows that by following these principles and usability goals, it managed to become one of the most successful email websites in the world.

References Used.
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Hotmail**
 * http://www.metrics2.com/blog/internet_indicators/communication/**
 * http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/dasp/ua_info.asp?pg=ssl&_lang=EN**