Scott Putterman wrote:
>...
> I really disagree that Account Central is "high-falutin". We have
> done useability studies that show that new users have a hard time
> finding simple functionality (I recognize that an argument to this is
> to find a way to make this functionality more obvious in other ways
> besides this page).
Definitely. Obvious improvements which could be made:
* Follow the Windows UI guidelines (and common sense) by purging the
UI of all uses of the abbreviation `Msg'. Change `Get Msg' to `Send
& Receive', and `New Msg' to `Compose'.
* Never show the three-pane window if there aren't any accounts set
up. Show the Account Wizard (and *only* the Account Wizard) instead.
* Include a `Search' button in the toolbar, like other popular mailers
do. (Outlook Express for Mac OS has a simple search form visible in
the thread pane by default!)
* Include an `Addresses' button in the toolbar, like other popular
mailers do, rather than hiding it in that horrible taskbar thingy.
* Default to the Classic theme, which has colorful distinguishable
button icons, easy-to-read button labels, and high-contrast menus --
rather than the Modern theme, which has none of the above.
* Clean up the menu structure, so that
- creating a new message
- replying to a message
- deleting a message
are all in the same menu, instead of being in three different menus
(`File', `Message', and `Edit' respectively).
> This page is an alternative form of help.
Despite the bits of explanatory text which Netscape Tech Pubs insists on
squirting into just about every dialog in Mozilla's UI, the main user
interface is (almost always) *not* an appropriate place for user help.
That job belongs to a `Help' button. If the UI isn't obvious, don't add
help text, fix the UI.
> It's
> possible that some people will get stuck using this page, but so what?
So they'll waste a lot of time in persistently using Account Central to
do their work, rather than the other access points which are no harder
to use (just currently harder to find).
> My guess is that if they figured out how to use the menu items that
> they would stop using this page and if they decide they like this page
> anyway, what harm has it done?
It's slowed them down, possibly for their entire `Mozilla lifetime' (the
whole time they use Mozilla, until they switch to another mailer which
is easier to use).
>...
> I think as Ben mentions later on, just because a user is online it
> doesn't mean they are connected to all of their accounts. We need some
> help from the user about what accounts they are actually planning on
> being connected to.
This whole `connected to' and `log on' business seems disingenous to me.
Is there some IMAP/POP equivalent of HTTP's `Keep-Alive' which I don't
know about? If not, what does `log on to this account' mean?
--
Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla user interface QA
Mozilla UI decisions made within 48 hours, or the next one is free
