[imp] Dimp UI review

[Michael M Slusarz]

My input on this list:

Quoting Liam Hoekenga <liamr at umich.edu>:

> 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.

[snip]

> 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.

Disagree.  I already feel they are too large and take up too much of  
the screen.  The message list should maximize the number of  
messages/rows IMHO.

> 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.

Thinking for this a bit, I guess I agree.  Total number of messages is  
important to display somewhere.  Maybe when dragging the scrollbar we  
can display a popup showing the current position in the viewport.

> 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

Don't disagree with this.  This is easily done via CSS though.

> 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.

Hide Message Preview seems unnecessarily wordy to me.  An average user  
is going to figure out what "Hide Preview" means IMHO.  Flag message  
does exactly that - it flags a message.  Any suggestions as to label  
this better would be great.

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

This is a config option.

> 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.

*Totally* disagree with this point.

> "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?)

These sound like a site-specific decision.

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

Well.. we *can't* use the OS/Browser scroll widget for technical  
reasons.  Agreed that the scrollbar look could be improved.  But I've  
been asking for help on this point for months and have received no  
input. http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/5872

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

It would be great if someone AJAX-ified Turba.  But this hasn't happened yet.

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

Configuration issue.

> 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?

Again, I totally disagree.  Having a compose window in a separate  
window is extremely useful - you can scroll through other messages to  
find text to copy/paste, etc.  It is a long-term goal to add the  
ability to add the compose window to a native tab inside of Horde, but  
there are no immediate plans for this.

> 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.

Lock the pref.

> 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.

Site-specific requirements.  And any tangible UI suggestions would be useful.

> 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.

If this refers to integration with non-AJAX apps (i.e. non-DIMP), not  
much we can do about that at this time.

> 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

Agree with this.  I will probably go through and try to remove any of  
these that I find in DIMP.

> 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.

Graphics.

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

CSS.

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

Configuration.

> 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.

Seeing as how drag/drop is pretty much the coolest feature of DIMP,  
not sure how to respond to this.  Obviously, education is important.   
And I know users have clamored to reintroduce checkboxes, but I'm not  
sure I totally agree with this suggestion.

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

Any suggestions?

> 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.

I don't agree with this.  Then again, UI is so subjective...

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

Site-specific.

> 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

Given what Liam has posted to the list the past few days, it sounds  
like these were Safari issues.  But I think I tracked down the  
potential causes over the last few days (Safari sucks) so another  
checkout/test of HEAD might be in order.

michael

-- 
___________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]