What if we added a small “Save” button to the search box? The user could search for some keywords or whatever and then hit the save button to save the search as an automatically updated ‘Filtered Folder’ in the sidebar.

It would be like a quick and easy-to-make “Smart Playlist” in iTunes, but for messages instead of music. Using these, users could easily make smart filtered folders, and they can save what they were looking for, for later use.

I do want to be constructive about them though… So I’m gonna make a list of the issues I see here;

1, In the first diagram the buttons for delete/junk have not been thought out correctly. The junk icon for an item is too close to the delete icon of the following icon. This will be prone to catastrophic miss-presses on touch interfaces, which I assume this will be used on?

2, The rules hinting + grey text is fail. People with bad eye sight will never be able to read this.

3, By saying everything is a tab is a bit crazy, this is for multiple reasons, firstly, I don’t care too much to have multiple folders open in multiple tabs, it appears I can’t hide the tab bar so it’s always going to take up a portion of my vertical screen space forever. And considering that a folders list is intended to switch the context of a pane to the right of it in *most* ui’s, opening folders in tabs by default would make me cry.

4, Why is the tab which is showing a threaded message view called inbox? why doesn’t it use the subject of the thread? This is simply confusing.

5, It appears that the message view is designed to be used only by people who don’t top post? Which is … mostly geeks? I don’t know many non-geek people that care about top posting etc… If you have user testing data to the contrary please furnish me with the proof.

So the problem here is as follows, if I’ve got a really really long email, which I read, then see the reply button then great, generally people will write at the top of the email, because that way it gets noticed. In order to write my reply I then scroll right to the top of *that* email, but that email’s top isn’t necessarily at the top of the list… So I can’t just pull to the top, I’ve got to meander to the right point, I write my reply, send… Well I’ll probably have to scroll all the way down back to the bottom of the message to send. So I’ve done two scrolls on replying to an email, both of which end somewhere within the scroll space and not necessarily at the top or the bottom.

The recipient receives that email in the same client, reads the top of the message and says… “How do I reply??!?!?!” Panic ensues, IT department then choose to ditch the email client under user pressure, or user ditches email client because they just can’t fathom it… Whichever market you point at, the reply button’s position has failed to inspire the user.

6. It appears to be designed for people that care about threads? Not everyone uses threads, people tend to organise things in their head more often by date, time, person and subject than an actual rigid thread. Threads get messy for people that don’t understand them, and/or people who receive emails from people that don’t understand threads, I’ve often received emails as replies where the sender has just changed the subject. The design of the threaded view causes problem 5, and although it’s obviously one of the main focal points of the design it will be prone to failure in user testing IMHO. If you have user testing data I’d love to see results?

7. There needs to be more space between the (X) and the configuration button, you don’t want to miss-click with a thumb press and close accidentally.

Milo: Its on the plate to do, may be later.

Heinzi: I took Murrine Gillouche and somes custom changes on it.

Jamie: It should be compilable and usable on Maemo.

Nikanth: I can make that configurable. That all other senders would be a bad idea IMO.

BTW is it possible to disable the “multi-line live-preview”… on small screens, it would severely restrict the number of messages one can see without scrolling. Or make it share the subject line.

Also in the message list, as the sender’s name is in a separate line, you could display the names of all the senders in that thread and also the receivers names in a dim-preview kind of font.

May be I am asking for too much.