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 -- IMP mailing list - Join the hunt: http://horde.org/bounties/#imp Frequently Asked Questions: http://horde.org/faq/ To unsubscribe, mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
