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timsamoff's Avatar
Posts: 1,605 | Thanked: 1,601 times | Joined on Mar 2007 @ Southern California
#11
Originally Posted by ARJWright View Post
Tim; are the buttons that you have made conforming to some type of UI spec on size? Because, I think that it could be further tweaked...

...for example, the From button could be done away with and put into a submenu (or, that could be something captured when the user clicks on 'compose" on the screen before, asked via a popup dialog of all the accounts available).

..the spelling and attachment buttons are probably double the size they need to be, I'd say about half as wide, but keep the same height. Then move the "Save Draft" button either to a submenu, or remove it entirely and the application would just save all emails as drafts by default with the user simply needing to turn that feature off if they didn't want it.

...The "To" button would remain, but it would change its context from saying "To" to having the name of the person (if a single recepient) or an elipses (...) if there are more than one person. This works well because the ideal behind email is just to point the message and go. There's no need to see the "To" as an empty field.

...The "Subject" button would likewise change once the user has imputted a subject. Because we have gained some more space here with the removal of a button and the making smaller of others, we then have room to show most of the subject. I would say that if its something that could be done in two lines in a smaller system font, that this option should be taken if the subject goes long.

...I agree that there should be more space for the body as you've designed.
Read the HIG.

Yes, the buttons must be that size (according to the HIG) for maximum finger-usability.

Traditional "popups" are frowned upon, but they can be used in specific cases.

Also, there are not going to be submenus anymore -- just Menu Views and Sub Views... Basically, every button (menu item) will open a new screen on top of the application's main window, rather than providing multiple-nested menu items.

The Spelling and Save buttons are my own additions -- they don't exist in the current UI.

You've added some nice tweaks that might work, though -- again, depending on screen real estate.

Tim
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ARJWright's Avatar
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#12
The HIG had been on my to-read list; its in a browser tab now

I should have contributed to the HIG, because while I understand the spec for the size of the buttons, half-size for some background elements would be a solid option (as I somewhat demonstrated in the suggestion above).

Nice to hear others talk about this kind of stuff; gives another layer of understanding to how Maemo lives beyond some of the other discussions.
 
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#13
Thanks for taking the time (although I agree with ragnar on this one).

Originally Posted by timsamoff View Post
I've greatly increased the size of the Body field.
I had a similar "WTF?" reaction when I saw screenshots for the first time, but it's not that bad actually. The body text area's height grows dynamically as you type and the entire window contents (ie, everything on the screen apart from the menu bar) scroll together so the header fields get out of the way as soon as the body needs the space.

Originally Posted by timsamoff View Post
Having not used Modest in Fremantle yet, I can only base my opinions on some screen shots and a recent Screencast (4.9 MB OGV file).
If you want some help with getting the beta SDK and modest from git up and running give me a shout.
 

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#14
All current mail app concepts, no matter what OS you're looking at, are pretty boring. They appeared when first graphical ui's appeared and haven't practicaly changed at all. I have some cool concept, I'll try to show it in my blog asap, but trust me, it's worth waiting =)
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#15
Originally Posted by wazd View Post
All current mail app concepts, no matter what OS you're looking at, are pretty boring. They appeared when first graphical ui's appeared and haven't practicaly changed at all. I have some cool concept, I'll try to show it in my blog asap, but trust me, it's worth waiting =)
Actually, I have some quite different ideas too, but I was trying to work with what we had for now. I should mockup what I'm thinking as well.

I can't wait to see yours!

Tim
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Last edited by timsamoff; 2009-07-09 at 19:47.
 

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ARJWright's Avatar
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#16
Originally Posted by wazd View Post
All current mail app concepts, no matter what OS you're looking at, are pretty boring. They appeared when first graphical ui's appeared and haven't practicaly changed at all. I have some cool concept, I'll try to show it in my blog asap, but trust me, it's worth waiting =)
First person to give me a unified communications interface on my tablet like Google Wave (hint, hint developers) makes me happybeans.
 
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#17
Please, dear god, can we have plaintext emails that aren't double-wrapped?
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#18
Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles View Post
Please, dear god, can we have plaintext emails that aren't double-wrapped?
Amen, brother.

Tim
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#19
the one thing that concerns me more about modest in M5 is:

from the screencasts, it looks as if it takes a number of taps from the launch of the application until you finally reach your inbox. - the latest screencast shows the user first select an account, then a folder and then finally the first list of messages shows up.

given the fact that i read emails more than i write on any mobile/portable device, this scares me more than the layout of the "write new mail" window.

so is it what it looks like from the screencast or does the application provide a better way to see my mails that just wasn't demonstrated?
if this is how it is: how could it possibly be changed given the tight restrictions of M5? - you cannot just say "show inbox on launch" - modest still doesn't seem to have the inbox, it looks as if there's still one inbox per account. - ideas?
 

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#20
Originally Posted by benny1967 View Post
the one thing that concerns me more about modest in M5 is:

from the screencasts, it looks as if it takes a number of taps from the launch of the application until you finally reach your inbox. - the latest screencast shows the user first select an account, then a folder and then finally the first list of messages shows up.

given the fact that i read emails more than i write on any mobile/portable device, this scares me more than the layout of the "write new mail" window.

so is it what it looks like from the screencast or does the application provide a better way to see my mails that just wasn't demonstrated?
if this is how it is: how could it possibly be changed given the tight restrictions of M5? - you cannot just say "show inbox on launch" - modest still doesn't seem to have the inbox, it looks as if there's still one inbox per account. - ideas?
That aspect of user process is often one that seems to be missed here on the Maemo side. We get the features, but then it takes so long to get there...

It would be nice to see an implemented summary screen option that a user could select as a start screen. On this screen would show the most recent emails pulled from all inboxes with an additional ability to compose an email right on the spot.

Click the compose button, get asked what account (if you have more than one account), and then boom go to the screen that started this thread. Nice and simple.

I would hope something like this is put in here; it would make the impression of Maemo that much better to those a bit less than patient.
 

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