[horde] Interface design Horde 4.1/5.0

[Jānis]

Citējot Gunnar Wrobel <wrobel at pardus.de>
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:14:23 +0100:

> Hello Jānis,
...
> The main reason for giving such a redesign a high priority is the  
> fact that we have been told many times that Horde looks outdated in  
> comparison to similar applications.
>
> My own experience has been kind of desastrous in that regard: Kolab  
> Systems is currently trying to move the Kolab ecosystem from Horde  
> to Roundcube. To a large part due to the fact that is is being  
> considered "to look slicker".
>
> Roundcube is not the only contender in that area. Google, Tine 2.0,  
> Open-Xchange, Zarafa all offer frontends with a more consistent  
> interface than what we provide at the moment.

the next is not about Horde:

I have impression that most of "interface improvements" are mostly  
marketoid-driven efforts (because "we must have a new product with  
astonishing look") and during the process the most important thing  
often is forgotten: the product, besides looking "super-duper", must  
do the work it is intended to and, in the best case, as glitch-less as  
possible.

I am very poor indicator as I hate the progress for the sake of  
progress, but what I see during my working day at some institution  
employing around 130 people:

- people mostly hates Windows7 and stick with XpSP3;
- people are mostly conservative and stick with MSO2003 instead of  
falling in love with MSO2007+

Of course, there are about 10-15% who thinks that the best tools for  
the work are the ones from bleeding edge. The reason behind it I see  
as the extremely high level of software piracy for private use on one  
hand and the popularity of software-bundled laptops with the latest  
releases of Win+MSO on the second.

---

If I may suggest one functionality for the Horde from proprietary  
software world - ability to change the attachment and save the changed  
one with the letter (as Outlook does) - I did not met any other  
product offering it and I must add, that it is very popular among  
bureaucracy.

Janis