[dev] [commits] Horde branch develop updated. 2f8d58fe9f090e2bc99a596b83555406bf51d5f3

[Jan Schneider]

Zitat von Michael M Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org>:

> Quoting Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org>:
>
>> commit b4f5efa1b1b64c15da4c3038650d880b95800829
>> Author: Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org>
>> Date:   Fri Jun 29 11:48:03 2012 +0200
>>
>>    Revert "Initial CSS tweaks to make the UI usable again."
>>
>>    This partially reverts commit 49876ab409273d4864e200b687264054a495eb84.
>>
>>    I knew you would to this. ;-)
>>
>>    Keep at least the same padding like all the other page elements.  
>> Give your eyes
>>    a few days first to get used to the design and the whitespace  
>> before starting
>>    to throw things over.
>>
>> imp/themes/default/dynamic/screen.css |    7 +++++--
>> 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>
>> http://git.horde.org/horde-git/-/commit/b4f5efa1b1b64c15da4c3038650d880b95800829
>
> All this padding makes the UI completely unusable on a smaller  
> screen.  And regardless: the mailbox page needs to contain message  
> data.  The mailbox page should not contain huge swaths of useless  
> whitespace.  What is the theory behind so much whitespace?  There  
> are already prominent separation elements between the different  
> parts of the page.  And none of this text is difficult to read  
> without the padding.  And this change increases the likelihood that  
> one will have to use the mouse to scroll down.
>
> Not to mention: why is the subject so prominent?  From a UI  
> standpoint this makes no sense.  The subject is important when  
> deciding what message to read (message list).  Once you are reading  
> the message, the subject is irrelevant: the data of the message is  
> all that matters.  I'm not looking at the subject anymore; the  
> To/From/Cc information becomes the critical information since it is  
> not all available in the above message list.
>
> Same thing with the compose page.  We are losing significant space  
> (by my count, at least **2** full rows: 36 px padding / 18 px a row)  
> in the most important element on the screen: the message body.  We  
> need to be doing things to INCREASE the amount of the viewable data,  
> not decreasing it.  All these changes are just increasing the need  
> to use the mouse on the page.
>
> I understand the idea that it's going to take time to get use to the  
> new look, but these are critical issues that need to be addressed  
> immediately.  These are UI lessons we have learned over 12+ years of  
> development and trial and error.  I feel like the design right now  
> has whitespace just for the purposes of having whitespace, without  
> concerning itself with the context of the surrounding data.

None of these issues, how you see them, have been raised in the weeks  
since we showed the first drafts, beside the whitespace that has been  
drastically reduced since then already. And I have further reduced  
some superfluous or inconsistent whitespace since the first version in  
develop.

Whitespace *has* function, and I'm positive that the added whitespace  
will help less advanced users who considered the UI confusing. I'm  
sure that, next to inconsistency, a good bunch of that confusion stems  
from a too crowded interface.

I see you point regarding the subject though I consider it less of an  
issue if using the collapsed message header, which is the default for  
most users.

Since most of your concerns do affect users who know the UI  
sufficiently well already and could use some more productiveness via  
more content, I think the solution is easy: create a "Condensed" theme  
that reduces whitespace and font sizes and maximizes page content.  
Advanced users might very well welcome that, me included, but basic  
users will profit from the cleaner, unaltered, original design.
-- 
Jan Schneider
The Horde Project
http://www.horde.org/