[imp] Dimp UI review

[Liam Hoekenga]

Our UI / usability guy took a look at DIMP for a meeting I had this 
morning.  Thought the community may be interested in the feedback.

Liam

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:41:09 -0500
Subject: Dimp UI review

Hi Liam.  Here is a quick UI review for Dimp.  I found quite a few things.  I'm 
sure I could find more, though.  Let me know if you have any questions!

- Josh


Important: Reduce the visual weight of the dark blue "Inbox" title bar
Reason: The dark blue Inbox bar has more visual weight than necessary.  It's 
important to know which mailbox you are in, but there are other obvious ways of 
determining this.  Once you're in the mailbox, the action buttons should have 
more weight.

Important: Increase the visual weight of the mailbox action buttons (Reply, 
Forward, etc.).
Reason: Once you navigate to a mailbox, they are the most important actions.

Important: Remove the "1-17" portion of the message count display
Reason: This is not a paginated message list.  It is an "endless scrolling" 
list.  The "1-17" just adds clutter.

Critical: Make the mailbox action "split buttons" indicators smaller and move 
it closer to the button label
Reason: They look like separate buttons unrelated to the button they are 
related to

Critical: Several actions under "Other Actions" need more explanation/better 
labels
Reason: "Hide Preview" --> "Hide Message Preview".  I have no idea what "Flag 
message" means or why I would want to do that.

Important: Remove leading 0's and seconds from times
Reason: Improve scan-ability, familiarity, reduce clutter

Critical: Reduce visual weight or remove some items in left sidebar to 
highlight important items and reduce clutter.
Reason: There is no way "Log Out" should have as must weight as "Get Mail". 
It's not related to the other actions and adds clutter in that area.  "Portal" 
also adds clutter and doesn't seem to be useful anyways.  "Options" is also not 
a frequent task and shouldn't be with the other frequent actions.  "Filters" 
isn't a common action (and maybe not one we want to emphasize that much?)

Critical: The scroll bar doesn't look like a scroll bar.  Try to use the OS' 
scroll widget

Critical: Integrate the Address Book UI with the mail UI
Reason: Consistency.  What ever we can do here will help.

Critical: Remove compose window "From" identity select drop-down (unless we 
need it)
Reason: Reduce confusion and visual clutter.

Important: Does the compose window need to be in a pop-up?
Reason: The experience would be more seamless if it didn't pop-up.  Maybe 
pop-up could be an option?

Important: Remove "Save in 'sent-mail'" option.
Reason: This isn't an option that needs to be set on a per-email basis.  Moving 
it to the preference page would reduce visual clutter.

Important: The preferences page needs help
Reason: Bad visual hierarchy and navigation design make it unnecessarily 
complex.  Login Tasks seem irrelevant to our Dimp installation.  Thick borders 
and title headers reduce scan-ability.

Important: Connect the left sidebar to the rest of the application visually
Reason: I can explain in more detail, but there are visual design problems that 
make it appear separate from the rest of the app.

Important: Remove the contextual help hovers--unless they add significant value
Reason: Simply repeating a button label in a contextual hover adds no value and 
only clutter

Important: Don't make the "New Folder" button look like another mailbox folder.
Reason: It's easy to click by accident.  Also, it's a very different action 
than a mailbox folder and should be communicated differently.

Critical: Increase contrast of highlight colors
Reason: It's hard to see when items are selected

Important: Change delete/expunge model to delete/trash model
Reason: Consistency with most mail applications

Important: This UI breaks the model of a traditional web application
Reason: To select multiple messages, you hold down the shift or command key. 
To move messages, you drag-and-drop.  This isn't often seen outside of a 
desktop app.  There are advantages to this approach, but be aware not all users 
will immediately understand it.  Unlike traditional web app interaction models, 
there is no visual indication for some actions.  We can't count on users 
reading the intro help text when logging into Dimp.  It might be worthwhile to 
explore more traditional interaction models or cues to compliment the 
unfamiliar interactions in Dimp.

Important: The icons are are kind of lame.
Reason: They look like they are Windows 95 vintage

Important:  The UI design is bland and looks old
Reason: It doesn't communicate a cutting-edge Ajax application.  Of course, 
Gmail doesn't do this either.

Important: Add a logo in the top left corner
Reason: Logos anchor the start of the interaction sequence

Bug: On logging in, my Inbox never displays.  It says "Loading..." and shows a 
spinner.  I have to reload the page to see it.

Bug: Sometimes when clicking on messages in the mailbox list, Dimp refuses to 
select the message and focus snaps back to a previously selected message.

Bug: Sometimes when clicking on things like "Options" or "Portal" and then 
clicking on "Inbox", Dimp refuses to change the display to Inbox