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Re-Designing the classic email client

vanschneider.com

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Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#21

Post by tambourine_man »

ben0x539 wrote: post #5

holy shit just write your web pages in html, not everything needs to be a crazy javascript abomination where the body text fades in slowly

If it falls back gracefully, why not?

As pointed by others, the site just is a bunch of JPEGs, which is a very bad choice indeed (accessibility, search engine access, speed, etc).

But aesthetics do matter. If done properly, you could just grab the content and use your favority reader with a click of a button in case you desagree with the author's taste.

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#22

Post by ScottWhigham »

MS Outlook has had something along these lines for years - they call it something else ("Quick Click" or something) but it allows you at least one-click colorization + task creation. It's not quite like he lays out but it's the basic idea of his "Actionsteps". I don't use it, and I would consider myself an Outlook power user. I have learned techniques that, quite frankly, just work better for me.

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#23

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

hapless wrote: post #8

This guy has teeny tiny letters hardcoded into JPGs on his web site. I can't read it. Fortunately, this means I can disregard what he has to say about UI/UX. Sometimes the medium IS the message.

Any other areas of your life where you throw the baby out with the bath water?

Someone over salt some food so you assume that everything they say or do with food is wrong?

Refuse to ever get a lift with a friend because they forgot to indicate once so obviously they can't be trusted to drive?

I'm not wild about the way he's presented his website but I'm still willing to look at his ideas about e-mail workflow with an open mind.

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#25

Post by joch »

brianlovin wrote: post #14

Is there anything out there right now that handles email attachments like described in this pitch? I would love the ability to see all the attachments ever sent to me, organized by date/sender/filetype. Or clicking on a contact and seeing all attachments I've shared with that person.

Postbox does that to some extent. See screenshots:

http://postbox-inc.com/graphics/screenshots

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#26

Post by dpark »

Flimm wrote: post #9
ben0x539 wrote: post #5

holy shit just write your web pages in html, not everything needs to be a crazy javascript abomination where the body text fades in slowly

Having the web page fade in slowly gives the impression of speed. It's not just a fancy gimmick.

> fade in slowly ... impression of speed

Surely you see the contradiction here.

> It's not just a fancy gimmick.

Right. It's a cheesy gimmick.

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#28

Post by Splines »

ScottWhigham wrote: post #22

MS Outlook has had something along these lines for years - they call it something else ("Quick Click" or something) but it allows you at least one-click colorization + task creation. It's not quite like he lays out but it's the basic idea of his "Actionsteps". I don't use it, and I would consider myself an Outlook power user. I have learned techniques that, quite frankly, just work better for me.

I use Outlook every day too, but don't really bother with the task tools that are built into it (even if it might (might!) integrate better with my email).

It's too general-purpose. It's like giving me a full toolbox, and the only limit is my mind! I'd rather have a tool that is more purpose-built to handle my needs.

These days I track todo-s in Trello and make sure my Inbox unread count stays at 0. That's it.

The only thing I'm missing is better attachment management, but that's just a nice-to-have. It's not a problem I personally run into very often. I could imagine though if your workflow involved lots of attachments it could be frustrating that they're treated as second-class citizens.

Re: Re-Designing the classic email client

#30

Post by joch »

If you are into GTD, an email workflow for handling email could be much more flexible. Example when going through your inbox:

1. Respond to/do anything that can be done in two minutes and archive the email. (It helps if you are maintaining your inbox at zero.)

2. If it takes longer than a few minutes to do, send it off to your GTD app for processing as an action step, waiting for or something else, and archive the email.

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