On Jan 8, 2015, at 11:27 AM, Sven Schwedas <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 2015-01-08 16:45, Francis Lachapelle wrote: >> >> On Jan 8, 2015, at 10:20 AM, Sven Schwedas <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> On 2015-01-08 15:56, Francis Lachapelle wrote: >>>> Hi Anna >>>> >>>> On Jan 8, 2015, at 9:26 AM, Anna Christina Naß <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>>> The next major release of SOGo (v3) will offer multiple themes and/or an >>>>>> easy way to customize the colours and fonts of the interface. >>>>> >>>>> I hope that it will feature a non-flat really-usable "classic" theme for >>>>> people who dislike the Windows 8-ish style which appeared everywhere in >>>>> the Internet and makes many websites harder to use than ever. >>>>> >>>>> If there is a need for financial support for such a theme, just open some >>>>> kind of Kickstarter or Bounty. >>>> >>>> You'll have to define what "classic" is for you. >>> >>> Presumably the current v2 theming. >> >> The v2 theme hasn't changed for years. It's time to move on. > > I don't even want to know how much time we waste every year re-training > users because someone found it was necessary to "move on". I hope the v3 > design will be good enough to stay with us for a couple of years as well. I understand your concern. We hope the interfaces of v3 will last as long as the ones of v2. >>>> Rest assured that v3 will be even more user-friendly and hopefully >>>> pleasant to use for the majority of users. >>>> >>>> We're looking into adopting Google Material design specifications >>>> (http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/). It's the most >>>> complete spec I never seen for web applications. >>> >>> While it's not as bad as others, there's some rather jarring concepts, >>> like "floating action buttons" (3 toolbars weren't enough, apparently?). >> >> They suggest to only promote the most common/important action as a floating >> action button. There should not be multiple floating buttons. > > None is too many, sometimes. Why do we need floating buttons now when we > just spent years training users to use the toolbars? I don't think the paradigm is far from the traditional toolbars. The goal is really to have an intuitive interface, simpler to use. >>> In general, "context sensitive" UX is fine for casual use where you >>> don't bother trying to learn a program anyway; but when you want to >>> (because you're using $program 8 hours a day and it'd make you more >>> productive), it makes training muscle memory a lot harder as actions >>> randomly appear/disappear (especially bad when there's not even keyboard >>> shortcuts). >> >> I'm not sure to follow. Who's talking about a random interface? > > That's just my observations with recent "UX improvements" from > Google/Microsoft/random webapps copying their styles – or rather, the > main things my users complain about to me. It takes too long to identify > interactive elements (due to the "everything must be flat and there > can't be any elevated elements" craze – Material isn't the worst > offender here, thankfully), and when they do, the elements randomly > disappear because users try to reach them from a slightly different > context, like in Firefox' and Office 2013's context dependant context > menus – Firefox doesn't even show keyboard shortcuts any more, so while > they still exist, the average user wouldn't know how to look them up. Flat design as it was initially proposed had weaknesses. Apple and other software companies have adjusted their user interfaces since then. We'll do our best to not repeat those errors. >> Why would v3 not have keyboard shortcuts? v3 has to be accessible on >> mobile devices and will therefore be responsive. In this perspective, >> the interface will change depending on the size of your screen but the >> interface will stay similar. > > As long as the shiney new presentation doesn't impact productivity, I > won't mind. But far too many recent re-designs sacrificed usability to > be more impressive in presentations, and I'm more than a bit wary of > them by now. We are totally aware that SOGo is a productivity tool and needs a very good usability. Francis-- [email protected] https://inverse.ca/sogo/lists
