…but found a tip here social.technet.microsoft.com/…/outlook-2013-ui-is-not-good One of the comments, which made it a bit better

  1. Set Theme to Dark Gray (it’s better than the default)
  2. Click the View tab, Other Settings, change Grid Line Style to Solid (helps separate the emails)
  3. Click the View tab, Conditional Formatting, Click Unread Messages, the click Font, change Font Style to Bold (helps identify new emails quickly)