AOL Mail Gets a Fresh New Look

Improved Mail user interface comes to 24 million AOL Mail users with a focus on providing a cleaner, more modern mail, SMS, and AIM experience

AOL Mail Gets a Fresh Look (Graphic: Business Wire)

PALO ALTO, Calif.--()--AOL, Inc. has officially released a complete overhaul of the AOL Mail user experience to its 24 million1 AOL Mail users – the first major redesign of AOL Mail since 2007. The new design provides users with a streamlined interface focused on freeing up inbox real estate, reducing overall clutter, and improving users’ ability to send mail, SMS, and instant messages. The new AOL Mail also includes a set of “mini-apps” giving users a simple and efficient way to manage AIM, contacts, events, and to-do lists in a single location. Finally, in addition to new, easier to read fonts and icons, AOL Mail has introduced a number of new themes and customization options so users can personalize the look and feel of their inbox.

“All of these improvements fall under our broader goal of giving new and loyal AOL Mail users a ‘fresh start’ with their email,” said Joshua Ramirez, Senior Director, Mail Product Management “Email in general is a cluttered, broken experience, and we’re actively fighting against that. We’re giving loyal users a new experience and offering potential new users a clean inbox with a great interface and clean slate where they can own the email address they want.”

As a part of this initiative, AOL also expanded their available namespace freeing up high quality, in-demand email addresses for new users. This means that new users signing up for an AOL email account may no longer have to use an address that includes a random string of numbers at the end of their names. “It’s a tremendous bonus for new users” said Ramirez. “It’s incredibly frustrating when you can’t get the user name that you want. More than that, I think there’s a great opportunity here for new users to stand out from the crowd with an iconic AOL Mail address.”

As part of the overall redesign the AOL Mail team closely reassessed and redesigned the size and placement of the targeted advertising that appears in the Mail product. The new ad placement shows more of the inbox, with less visual clutter, and performs better than the previous design. Both search and display advertising are yielding better results than the previous Mail design, which offers value both to advertisers and to AOL, with a cleaner experience for AOL Mail users.

“This redesign comes at the end of a multi-year initiative that started with optimizing and updating our system ‘under the hood’,” said David Temkin, Senior Vice President of Mobile and Mail at AOL, “User experience is our absolute top priority; we wanted to maintain the reliability of AOL Mail while working to address some of the major concerns that our users have shared with us. The new AOL Mail is a tremendous step in the right direction, and we aren’t through yet.”

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

1 comScore Media Metrix, June 2012

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Contacts

AOL Corporate Communications
Mandy Albers, 212-652-6394
mandy.albers@teamaol.com
or
DRSmedia
David Speiser, 650-516-6635 (Mobile)
david@drsmedia.com

Contacts

AOL Corporate Communications
Mandy Albers, 212-652-6394
mandy.albers@teamaol.com
or
DRSmedia
David Speiser, 650-516-6635 (Mobile)
david@drsmedia.com