Author Robert Gallagher once said that change is inevitable -except in a vending machine.
Recently, the University of Memphis underwent a change of its own - that doesn't involve vending machines - it updated its campus email systems.
"It was mandated by Microsoft," said Jon Weber, interim director of Enterprise Infrastructure. "Microsoft was transitioning all the customers that used the live@edu service over to Office 365, and this is actually the interface that goes along with their Exchange 2013 email servers."
As with most change, responses and reactions vary.
"The design is visually very confusing to me," English professor Cathy Dice said. "It's hard for me to tell what messages have been read and which ones haven't, and there is just so much stuff on the screen that my eyes don't know where to look."
Jenny Rice, a 21-year-old accounting major, agrees.
"I don't like it as much as I like the old one," she said. "It's harder to see if your emails have been read."
However, some like Kristen Parker, a 19-year-old teaching major, was unaware of the change.
"A number of people that have used it like the new interface," Weber said. "However, we have received some complaints about it, either due to where they are accessing it from, or that they were really used to the old interface and are thrown off by the new upgraded look and feel."
Despite the complaints, most of the reported issues are not long term.
"From our standpoint, there weren't a lot of lingering issues," Weber said.
He cited issues with specific Internet providers and certain browsers as the main source of the complaints.
"We have engaged Microsoft in those small cases, and we are working those users to trouble shoot with them on an individual basis."
It took about two business days to fully complete the switch, and Weber believes that in a lot of respects, the new interface is an improvement.
"Before if you used Safari, Firefox or Chrome, you got this light version that didn't have all the features," Weber said. "I know a lot of people that don't want to use Internet Explorer, and so this new version gives everyone the same experience regardless of what browser they use."
