Compose screen mockup...

robmueller · 6th January 2003, 07:01 PM

I've just been playing a bit with a new compose screen mockup and was interested in getting some feedback from people.

http://robm.fastmail.fm/mockup/compose_mockup.html

Remember, this is just some stuff I'm playing with, nothing concrete.

Some things to note:
1. The quicklist I think would be pretty useful. Some questions:
a) Should it display full names, nicknames, email addresses, or something else? Personally I like full names, since that's who you're actually sending the email to, everything else is just an arbitrary tag to identify/route the information by.
b) If possible, the buttons should use JS to avoid a round trip.
c) I think that double clicking an item should move it to the 'To' field. I was thinking of adding radio buttons as well, but it looks too cluttered.
d) What goes into the quicklist? Most recently used addresses? Most commonly used addresses? Specified explicitly in the address book?
e) What order? Alphabetical? Custom defined?

I'm sure most people will of course say "custom everything!", but lets see if there's some more 'intelligent' way that gives 95% of what people want automatically.

Personally for me, I think "N (configurable) most used addresses, then rest alphabetical, but only when 'Add to quicklist' checked in address book" would do what I want, and I think what most other people would want to, but then I'm just guessing.

The V, ^, <, > links shrink/grow the compose area, which would be 'remembered' of course. The >>| link would set the "width: 100%" style on the text area, so it automatically resizes to the window width. I'll probably remove the "width: 100%" attributes from the stylesheets which currently do this.

Looking for people's thoughts.

Rob

Jeremy Howard · 6th January 2003, 07:14 PM

The address list would be very handy.

I wouldn't like showing full name at all; it's too long, and doesn't help with all the dupe full names I have in my address book. The email address is actually who I'm sending to, so that's what I want to see, unless there's a nickname defined, in which case that's a unique abbreviation I've already defined. The email address should be truncated to show the first n chars of the email name, then '...@' and the first n chars of the domain, to keep the width of the box sane.

The '<' should be placed bottom left of the textarea, '^' should be top right, etc.

The widths should be remembered as relative multiples so that changing the screen size in Preferences still changes the size of the textarea (so when I switch from my laptop 1024x768 to Netbook 640x480 just changing one setting is required, not multiple clicks of '<' and '^'.

The Personality box should be in the tab order just before Subject.

I agree with your suggestion about what goes into the address list.

watchdis · 6th January 2003, 07:22 PM

nice, i like it. frankly i agree with most of what you're suggesting. but i'm worried that the interface might look too cluttered. when you've got nicknames and autocompletion on addresses, how necessary is this tool? i think the average email user will like it but i don't think i'd use it much (being a bit weird 'n all).

having said that, rather than fighting progress, in reply to your specific points:

i'm for nicknames in the quick address window. thats how i think about peoples addresses.

java and double clicking are good ideas

what addresses? i think the default should be the most recently used and then people can go and check them in their address book if they like. i think that would be the most useful, intuitive and accessible for most people.

the compose area thingies are a great idea given the wide variety of machines accessing, but it might over complicate the screen unecessarily.

are we getting to the stage where we should have an "advanced features" check box in the preferences page which would turn on ther more complicated features?

about the new flags n' stuff: great! i think

watchdis · 6th January 2003, 07:24 PM

how does this fit in with the html composition window? are the two projects linked?

Jeremy Howard · 6th January 2003, 08:01 PM

The two projects are very tenuously linked. I think Nico will probably do this first to get a feel for this bit of the code, and may do the HTML composition shortly afterwards (perhaps actually commiting the two features together, perhaps not).

SanjaySheth · 6th January 2003, 08:24 PM

I agree with the idea that the addresses in the quickpick should be MRU. Also, the question of what to display in the quickpick menu is probably a good option/toggle for the addresses screen. Allow the user to pick between email address, nickname, and fullname.

The < > ^ V bit at the bottom may be too complicated to understand for most new users. I think the capability to resize the compose box is nice to have but perhaps this isn't the best place/screen to put it. (use an advanced mode checkbox perhaps?)

**Gankaku** · 6th January 2003, 08:28 PM

For the quicklist I was thinking I'd like nicknames to be shown. However, every address book entry might not have a nickname. So I'd rather see first name. Jeremy said he prefers email addresses. But with so many email addresses (some of which are quite cryptic) I don't remember who has what address. Especially with my overseas friends/family - for some reason alot their addresses are something.something.somethingelse@somethinglong.country. I just wouldn't be able to easily tell which person's email address was the right one from a truncated address in a Quick List. But I'd easily be able to pick their names from a Quick List.

I like the options area. The From: address is missing. I assume it is set up in Personality and when the Personality is selected, that is which from address the email will be posted with? New users might not know this and wonder exactly which address their email is coming from since it's not easily discernable, since there's no From:.

edit: also Sanjay said let this area be customizable: nick/name/addy. That'd be great if we could. I think also it should be in alphabetical order. That makes most sense to everyone, even though we'd like everything to be customized to our needs, alphabetical should be just fine.

Lisa

watchdis · 6th January 2003, 08:40 PM

i'm guessing you will still be able to change the "from" field in the usual way. see here

**psalzer** · 6th January 2003, 09:00 PM

I like quicklists. User configurable is probably the best way, but if not, then most frequently used is best. Most recent isn't bad, but it will constantly add addresses that are going to be a one time thing and knock off a regular correspondent in the process.

I can see most people prefer nicknames, so I won't argue, but I prefer e-mail addresses, except for group names. That's because I can never remember what nickname I've assigned to anyone and when I do use one I end up using the "check" button all the time. I do recognize the e-mail addresses of frequent correspondents, though.

yleshea · 6th January 2003, 10:05 PM

how about adding a option in the personality drop down list such as <other> or <new personality>

so that when that option is selected then a 'from address' field appears for us to type in any email address that we want the email to seem it's from- much like what happens when we select the option to redirect email

in that way it is more convenient than entering a # and press 'check' for the field to appear

greenhodge · 6th January 2003, 11:05 PM

The quick address list hold no appeal for me. Just makes the header look cluttered. I find that typing in partial names and nicknames works just great for me.

why are the personalities listed by email address instead of personality name? that makes the pulldown much wider.

DippyTwitty · 6th January 2003, 11:20 PM

Quote:

how about adding a option in the personality drop down list such as <other> or <new personality>

Sounds like a great idea

Another suggestion, since everybody has a slightly different idea about which addresses to put in the quick list: Say the quicklist is meant to hold N addresses. Let the user configure which ones to put in there somehow in the 'Addresses' screen, BUT if he configures less than N, fill the remaining spaces with mos-recently-used addresses (showing nicknames if present of course)

That way, you can use it either way, simply by whether you configure it, or not. Better still you can configure 1 or 2 that you always want to show, and you get MRU addresses below them as well.

Since I'm on the subject please please please consider (yes, I know, it's had its own thread at one time...) having a checkbox in the 'attachments' section saying "strip attachments in Sent Folder" Since no current IMAP clients can do this. Some have obscure workarounds for doing it afterward, but they're a pain.

Anyway, glad to see you're spending some effort on the UI, keep up the great work!

Dip

davidbstanley · 7th January 2003, 01:48 AM

Given some of the mixed reactions to the prototype compose screen how about making it optional. We could have simple, full and html (eventually) compose screens. Users could then decide which one they wanted to use in preferences.

datherfold · 7th January 2003, 02:58 AM

Quote:

Given some of the mixed reactions to the prototype compose screen how about making it optional. We could have simple, full and html (eventually) compose screens. Users could then decide which one they wanted to use in preferences.

If it is a given, that the new compose screen will use JS, I would agree that it would be very nice, if this could remain an optional feature. For the benefit of people using non JS browsers.

PS: Everything in the old compose screen works (very well) with Lynx. Including the address book and formatting. It is really great to see this (the majority of webmail providers gave up on supporting old web browsers a long time ago)

Dave

Tango · 7th January 2003, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by davidbstanley
Given some of the mixed reactions to the prototype compose screen how about making it optional. We could have simple, full and html (eventually) compose screens. Users could then decide which one they wanted to use in preferences.

Yes, I agree it should be optional...but I think the toggle switch should be in the compose page, not the preferences page...so that the occasional HTML mail can be composed without going through the hassle of changing the preferences...

6th January 2003, 07:01 PM	#1
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,098 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Compose screen mockup... I've just been playing a bit with a new compose screen mockup and was interested in getting some feedback from people. http://robm.fastmail.fm/mockup/compose_mockup.html Remember, this is just some stuff I'm playing with, nothing concrete. Some things to note: 1. The quicklist I think would be pretty useful. Some questions: a) Should it display full names, nicknames, email addresses, or something else? Personally I like full names, since that's who you're actually sending the email to, everything else is just an arbitrary tag to identify/route the information by. b) If possible, the buttons should use JS to avoid a round trip. c) I think that double clicking an item should move it to the 'To' field. I was thinking of adding radio buttons as well, but it looks too cluttered. d) What goes into the quicklist? Most recently used addresses? Most commonly used addresses? Specified explicitly in the address book? e) What order? Alphabetical? Custom defined? I'm sure most people will of course say "custom everything!", but lets see if there's some more 'intelligent' way that gives 95% of what people want automatically. Personally for me, I think "N (configurable) most used addresses, then rest alphabetical, but only when 'Add to quicklist' checked in address book" would do what I want, and I think what most other people would want to, but then I'm just guessing. The V, ^, <, > links shrink/grow the compose area, which would be 'remembered' of course. The >>\| link would set the "width: 100%" style on the text area, so it automatically resizes to the window width. I'll probably remove the "width: 100%" attributes from the stylesheets which currently do this. Looking for people's thoughts. Rob

6th January 2003, 07:24 PM	#4
watchdis Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 152	and another thing...... how does this fit in with the html composition window? are the two projects linked?

6th January 2003, 08:24 PM	#6
SanjaySheth Master of the @ Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,074	I agree with the idea that the addresses in the quickpick should be MRU. Also, the question of what to display in the quickpick menu is probably a good option/toggle for the addresses screen. Allow the user to pick between email address, nickname, and fullname. The < > ^ V bit at the bottom may be too complicated to understand for most new users. I think the capability to resize the compose box is nice to have but perhaps this isn't the best place/screen to put it. (use an advanced mode checkbox perhaps?) Last edited by SanjaySheth : 6th January 2003 at 08:28 PM.

6th January 2003, 08:28 PM	#7
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,194	For the quicklist I was thinking I'd like nicknames to be shown. However, every address book entry might not have a nickname. So I'd rather see first name. Jeremy said he prefers email addresses. But with so many email addresses (some of which are quite cryptic) I don't remember who has what address. Especially with my overseas friends/family - for some reason alot their addresses are something.something.somethingelse@somethinglong.country. I just wouldn't be able to easily tell which person's email address was the right one from a truncated address in a Quick List. But I'd easily be able to pick their names from a Quick List. I like the options area. The From: address is missing. I assume it is set up in Personality and when the Personality is selected, that is which from address the email will be posted with? New users might not know this and wonder exactly which address their email is coming from since it's not easily discernable, since there's no From:. edit: also Sanjay said let this area be customizable: nick/name/addy. That'd be great if we could. I think also it should be in alphabetical order. That makes most sense to everyone, even though we'd like everything to be customized to our needs, alphabetical should be just fine. Lisa Last edited by Gankaku : 6th January 2003 at 08:31 PM.

6th January 2003, 10:05 PM	#10
yleshea Member Join Date: Dec 2000 Posts: 85	how about adding a option in the personality drop down list such as <other> or <new personality> so that when that option is selected then a 'from address' field appears for us to type in any email address that we want the email to seem it's from- much like what happens when we select the option to redirect email in that way it is more convenient than entering a # and press 'check' for the field to appear Last edited by yleshea : 6th January 2003 at 10:14 PM.

6th January 2003, 07:14 PM	#2
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,499	The address list would be very handy. I wouldn't like showing full name at all; it's too long, and doesn't help with all the dupe full names I have in my address book. The email address is actually who I'm sending to, so that's what I want to see, unless there's a nickname defined, in which case that's a unique abbreviation I've already defined. The email address should be truncated to show the first n chars of the email name, then '...@' and the first n chars of the domain, to keep the width of the box sane. The '<' should be placed bottom left of the textarea, '^' should be top right, etc. The widths should be remembered as relative multiples so that changing the screen size in Preferences still changes the size of the textarea (so when I switch from my laptop 1024x768 to Netbook 640x480 just changing one setting is required, not multiple clicks of '<' and '^'. The Personality box should be in the tab order just before Subject. I agree with your suggestion about what goes into the address list.

6th January 2003, 07:22 PM	#3
watchdis Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 152	nice, i like it. frankly i agree with most of what you're suggesting. but i'm worried that the interface might look too cluttered. when you've got nicknames and autocompletion on addresses, how necessary is this tool? i think the average email user will like it but i don't think i'd use it much (being a bit weird 'n all). having said that, rather than fighting progress, in reply to your specific points: i'm for nicknames in the quick address window. thats how i think about peoples addresses. java and double clicking are good ideas what addresses? i think the default should be the most recently used and then people can go and check them in their address book if they like. i think that would be the most useful, intuitive and accessible for most people. the compose area thingies are a great idea given the wide variety of machines accessing, but it might over complicate the screen unecessarily. are we getting to the stage where we should have an "advanced features" check box in the preferences page which would turn on ther more complicated features? about the new flags n' stuff: great! i think

6th January 2003, 08:01 PM	#5
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,499	The two projects are very tenuously linked. I think Nico will probably do this first to get a feel for this bit of the code, and may do the HTML composition shortly afterwards (perhaps actually commiting the two features together, perhaps not).

6th January 2003, 08:40 PM	#8
watchdis Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 152	i'm guessing you will still be able to change the "from" field in the usual way. see here

6th January 2003, 09:00 PM	#9
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,650	I like quicklists. User configurable is probably the best way, but if not, then most frequently used is best. Most recent isn't bad, but it will constantly add addresses that are going to be a one time thing and knock off a regular correspondent in the process. I can see most people prefer nicknames, so I won't argue, but I prefer e-mail addresses, except for group names. That's because I can never remember what nickname I've assigned to anyone and when I do use one I end up using the "check" button all the time. I do recognize the e-mail addresses of frequent correspondents, though.

6th January 2003, 11:05 PM	#11
greenhodge Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: nyc Posts: 43	The quick address list hold no appeal for me. Just makes the header look cluttered. I find that typing in partial names and nicknames works just great for me. why are the personalities listed by email address instead of personality name? that makes the pulldown much wider.

7th January 2003, 01:48 AM	#13
davidbstanley Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Kent, UK Posts: 686	Given some of the mixed reactions to the prototype compose screen how about making it optional. We could have simple, full and html (eventually) compose screens. Users could then decide which one they wanted to use in preferences.