New mockups from Neil

[petergh]

Neil,

I've been playing around with the inbox/compose view of Revision 23, and I really love what you've done with the keyboard shortcuts: u returns from a specific message to the inbox, j moves the arrow down, k moves it up, o opens the message, etc. This alone is a huge improvement in usability over the current web interface and is one of the things that is keeping me glued to Gmail at the moment.

What I'd like to see that I don't think is currently possible:

* The possibility to use j and k to move to the next and previous message when viewing a message (as in Gmail)

* The possibility to use c to compose a message, r to reply to a message, a to reply to all, and f to forward (again, as in Gmail, which the existing keyboard shortcuts already mimic)

Adding these shortcuts would allow the user to read and write all his email without ever having to take his hands off his keyboard. That and the immensely improved aesthetics of the web interface in general with your great work on the design would be a boon to Fastmail, so get it out on /beta ASAP so we can try it out!

Peter

[neilj]

These shortcuts are all already implemented; they just can't do anything on the mockup as it's not connected up to a server.

Cheers,

Neil

[Berenburger]

Is there already a preview of the Files section?

[pascoa]

Could it be, the new interface coming? Great stuff, I am really looking forward to it. Thanks Neil, it looks slick!

One comment though. Not sure if this has been posted already, but am at work and cannot go through the entire thread. On the last mockup, if I open an e-mail and look at it and I would like to go back to the inbox, would it not make sense to be able to click on the 'inbox' tab. Now it just does nothing, which seems a bit of a waste as I have to click the 'back to inbox' button that is a bit harder to find.

Also, when composing a message would it be possible to add the option to quickly add up to 3 attachments. I love that feature and apparently it has gone. It would be great to have it back, but if it's not possible, that's a small issue with loads of improvements.

If it has been mentioned before, sorry just ignore!

[neilj]

Originally Posted by Berenburger

Is there already a preview of the Files section?

Just finished designing that today: http://mockups.neilj.fastmail.fm/revision25/files.html

Originally Posted by pascoa

On the last mockup, if I open an e-mail and look at it and I would like to go back to the inbox, would it not make sense to be able to click on the 'inbox' tab. Now it just does nothing, which seems a bit of a waste as I have to click the 'back to inbox' button that is a bit harder to find.

We'll probably pick these small things up after we've released the first beta.

Originally Posted by pascoa

Also, when composing a message would it be possible to add the option to quickly add up to 3 attachments. I love that feature and apparently it has gone. It would be great to have it back, but if it's not possible, that's a small issue with loads of improvements.

This has actually got a lot slicker than before. You can add as many attachments as you want without leaving the page and they'll upload in the background as you type your message. Just try clicking the button (no files will actually be uploaded in the mockup so it's quite safe to try out)!

Cheers,

Neil

[petergh]

My god, FastMail is snatching up every cool feature from the Gmail interface and adding some of the unique FM icing not found elsewhere. This is promising to become the king of webmail interfaces as it once was! Yay!

Neil, please promise me you'll design a front page to match the new webmail layout. The current one is horrendous. I know it won't attract new users, but it'll make sense to have the front page design match that of the web interface.

Peter

[Abydos]

Originally Posted by petergh

Neil, please promise me you'll design a front page to match the new webmail layout. ...it'll make sense to have the front page design match that of the web interface.
Peter

Really good point! We need a matching log in page.


On another subject...

Neil - Has the 'Poll' feature been resigned to history?
The little '0 of 4' New messages window (not the polling other accounts thing).

[neilj]

Originally Posted by Abydos

Has the 'Poll' feature been resigned to history?
The little '0 of 4' New messages window (not the polling other accounts thing).

It's not in the mockup but it's still there in the alpha version we're running and will probably still be there when we launch the beta. Whether it makes it through to the final release though will depend on whether or not I get round to replacing it with something better...

Neil

[Merovingian]

Originally Posted by neilj

Whether it makes it through to the final release (snip)...

Care to offer any hints on when that might be ?

[digp]

yuk interface

[hadaso]

When one scrolls down (long message., long message list etc.) the sidebar naturally disappears at the top (or the visible small portion does when it's "hidden"). I think it should not scroll up, but rather go down with the page (more precisely: if the sidebar is higher than the sceen it should scroll up until the bottom of the sidebar is at the bottom of the visible screen and stay there until the user scrolls up to the point were the top of the page "forces" the sidebar down. If the sidebar is shorter than the screen then it should stay at the same position when the user scrolls down).

It's not that important that it would fit the very last available pixel but it would be convenient to always find most of the functionality right there without having to scroll up like we have to do now when doing such things as scrolling down a list 500 messages at a time and moving a few to some folders (now we have to select them. memorize the approximate position in the list, scroll up so the folder list is visible. Click the correct filing button, wait for the screen to refresh, scroll down to the memorized location to continue handling stuff. well now I see that it won't solve everything. If we could have it scrolled down to approximately the same position after the filing action it would be much better but that's probably much tougher to implement).

Come to think of it, if the functions at the top didn't scroll up out of the screen we would not need the bottom copy and we would have them available while scrolling the middle of the screen).

Edit: and while I'm at it I think I suggested a long time ago that we could add user customizable boxes to the sidebar where we could put things like links to resources we use when working (or javascript to do things the interface doesn't).

[neilj]

Originally Posted by hadaso

When one scrolls down (long message., long message list etc.) the sidebar naturally disappears at the top (or the visible small portion does when it's "hidden"). I think it should not scroll up, but rather go down with the page (more precisely: if the sidebar is higher than the sceen it should scroll up until the bottom of the sidebar is at the bottom of the visible screen and stay there until the user scrolls up to the point were the top of the page "forces" the sidebar down. If the sidebar is shorter than the screen then it should stay at the same position when the user scrolls down).

The trouble with this is that it doesn't help if you want to get at one of those folders near the top of the list - you still have to scroll to the top of the page before it will be visible! However, I think your problem would be mainly solved with a sidebar that was 'fixed' and scrolled independently. This (and a fixed actionbar) will all be possible with an alternate stylesheet; this is one of the benefits of having much more flexible markup than before.

Neil

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by neilj

... This (and a fixed actionbar) will all be possible with an alternate stylesheet; ...

[ChinaLamb]

Originally Posted by neilj

The trouble with this is that it doesn't help if you want to get at one of those folders near the top of the list - you still have to scroll to the top of the page before it will be visible! However, I think your problem would be mainly solved with a sidebar that was 'fixed' and scrolled independently. This (and a fixed actionbar) will all be possible with an alternate stylesheet; this is one of the benefits of having much more flexible markup than before.

Neil

I, personally would love to see that feature implemented in a stylesheet.VERY useful.

I think it would also be useful to have a section of the top that did not scroll - so that the delete, mark read, etc. can all stay visible. Is that possible via style sheets as well?

[marc_otten]

Originally Posted by digp

yuk interface

Hi Digp,

would you mind sharing with us what part of the mockups you don't like and why you don't like it? That way, Neil might be able to do something about it.

Regards,
--Marc