[imp] migrating users from traditional to dynamic interface (message deletion)

[Michael M Slusarz]

Quoting Vilius Šumskas <vilius at lnk.lt>:

>> Zitat von Vilius Šumskas <vilius at lnk.lt>:
>>
>> >> Quoting Vilius Šumskas <vilius at lnk.lt>:
>> >>
>> >> > Hello,
>> >> >
>> >> >   I  had  a  chance  to  migrate  one  of my bigger installations from
>> >> >   traditional  to  dynamic  interface  recently. And stumbled upon one
>> >> >   major  problem.  Seems  like  a  fair  amount  of  users had used to
>> >> >   traditional  IMP  interface  and the concept of "mailbox pages" that
>> >> >   now  they make serious mistakes performing actions on "message list"
>> >> >   in the dynamic view.
>> >> >
>> >> >   For  example,  they  used upper checkbox in traditional interface to
>> >> >   mark  20  messages  (or whatever is configured as message number per
>> >> >   page), and clicked Delete to delete all messages in the currect page.
>> >> >   Of  course  in  dynamic  view this empties a whole mailbox. Moreover
>> >> >   there  is  no confirmation  popup saying "Are you sure that  
>> you want to
>> >> >   empty this folder?"
>> >> >
>> >> >   Can it be added?
>> >>
>> >> No.  Especially since the method used in dynamic view is the
>> >> *expected* way that button should work.  Selecting all messages is NOT
>> >> a destructive action in and of itself.  And whether users are
>> >
>> > Yes, but selecting all messages and hitting Delete is destructive. I
>> > think there should be a confirmation if user selected all messages
>> > which upper checkbox AND clicked Delete.
>> >
>> >> migrating from the traditional view is totally site-dependent.
>> >>
>> >> If you are truly worried about losing messages, you should enforce a
>> >> Trash mailbox.
>> >
>> > Actually I did. But this didn't help, because user went to Trash
>> > mailbox and just cleared the Trash too, because he didn't think that
>> > Trash contained all the emails either. He just clicked select all
>> > and Delete in the Trash thinking that he is deleting 20 messages.
>>
>> Then the server should be configured to a delayed expunge to protect
>> users from potential data loss.
>>
>> But I also don't think the problem you describe warrants a check on
>> the code side. What you describe is a transient problem that won't
>> stay for long time as users get adapted to the new interface. While
>> the protection you ask for would be useful at first it would become
>> annoying shortly after.
>
> I don't think that it would be annoying. What I'm asking is that  
> this confirmation popup would be shown only when *all* messages in  
> current mailbox are selected *and* the Delete is clicked.  We show  
> such protection when emptying mailbox from the context menu on the  
> folder on the left anyway. And at least to me this would be more  
> consistent behaviour, because selecting all messages and deleting  
> equals emptying the folder.

This would be tremendously annoying.  When I click on the all messages  
when there are 4 messages in the mailbox and I get a disruptive box  
asking me if I want to delete all messages.  That is terrible UI.

Not to mention that for things like this, if they are too obtrusive,  
users will eventually ignore the content of the message anyway (i.e.  
after the 2nd or 3rd time they see it, they don't even know what the  
popup says so they will blow right through it).  So users will still  
complain about this, even if this exists.  We have seen this happen in  
the past.

Annoying confirmation screens should only be used on a particularly  
destructive action that can be activated with a single click.  It is  
intended to prevent accidental clicks only.  And even then, it should  
only be used in rare circumstances.

michael

___________________________________
Michael Slusarz [slusarz at horde.org]