5 ms·

GMail was (and maybe keeps being) a much better user experience than native email clients for desktop PCs.

by euyyn 9y ago

millstone 9y ago
It's better in that it required no configuration. But from a UI perspective it feels inferior. For example, native clients can just show you a list of all your messages, but GMail still paginates like a late-90s PHP site.
- yarper 9y ago
  That view is hugely annoying, even when you group unread and read, both are paginated separately. Perhaps there's some configuration I need to set..
- euyyn 9y ago
  I think PC clients back then paginated too. They didn't group emails by thread either, and at least Outlook still doesn't by default.
danpalmer 9y ago
I can’t disagree more. I find gmail to be a perfect example of why web apps are playing to the lowest common denominator and result in poor user experiences everywhere. Just my opinion though, I realise most people love it.
- euyyn 9y ago
  What feature of native apps do you wish web-GMail had?
  - ivm 9y ago
    Snappiness. It wasn't close even to Fastmail's web UI and took forever to load when my connection was slow.
    - euyyn 9y ago
      That can't be attributed to playing to the lowest common denominator.
      - threeseed 9y ago
        If Google can't make the best web application then who can ?
  - danpalmer 9y ago
    I'm on a Mac and mostly come from Mail.app, but many of these things would apply on Windows/Linux as well in slightly different forms. - Speed. It's sluggish compared to the FastMail web UI, and slow compared to Mail.app on my Mac. - System provided UI editing controls which would bring richer editing and consistent controls - Consistent hotkeys - I know Gmail has rich hotkeys, but all my other software uses a fairly consistent set which can also access a wider range of keys than a browser can do. - Automation - I use automation and tools like Alfred (/Quicksilver/Gnome Do/etc) and these can interface with native apps much more effectively through things like AppleScript. - Drag and drop (you can drag and drop much more than you might think on a Mac, and I use it extensively) - Centralised notification control in system preferences - Better (and faster) layout – you're constrained to a web browser so there's less you can do in terms of good use of screen real-estate. - Prettier – it might sound superficial, but I enjoy using apps that have a nicer design and Gmail, compared with many native clients, looks pretty terrible. - Real multi-window support - using new tabs doesn't provide the same interface or interaction patterns. - Real right-click support, with the options I'd expect for any other system app. That's most of what I'd like to see. Note that an Electron app like Slack doesn't exhibit many of these.
pjmlp 9y ago
Completly disagree. I only use GMail as gateway to aggregate my email accounts and synchronize with my Android devices, native mail client. On Windows and GNU/Linux systems at home, I happily keep using Thunderbird.
- euyyn 9y ago
  Without specifics there's not much to discuss. E.g. Thunderbird apparently only introduced threaded conversations 7 years after GMail did.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    I hate threaded conversations, so that isn't something I even value.
    - euyyn 9y ago
      Even if you personally dislike it, I think you can agree that it's one of the UX choices that made it storm over the alternatives at the time. Not all our individual tastes align with what's most popular, obviously.
      - pjmlp 9y ago
        Not really, I guess many jumped on it, because it was a free email server from Google. I still manage my own email servers.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ksk 9y ago
Believe it or not, in my experience, Exchange + Outlook 2016 stomps all over GMail. I find that its faster, searches quicker, and takes up _WAY_ less memory. I don't do any fancy things other than basic email, scheduling meetings, etc so YMMV.

GMail was (and maybe keeps being) a much better user experience than native email clients for desktop PCs.

by euyyn 9y ago

GMail was (and maybe keeps being) a much better user experience than native email clients for desktop PCs.

It's better in that it required no configuration. But from a UI perspective it feels inferior. For example, native clients can just show you a list of all your messages, but GMail still paginates like a late-90s PHP site.

yarper 9y ago
That view is hugely annoying, even when you group unread and read, both are paginated separately. Perhaps there's some configuration I need to set..
euyyn 9y ago
I think PC clients back then paginated too. They didn't group emails by thread either, and at least Outlook still doesn't by default.

danpalmer 9y ago

I can’t disagree more. I find gmail to be a perfect example of why web apps are playing to the lowest common denominator and result in poor user experiences everywhere. Just my opinion though, I realise most people love it.

euyyn 9y ago
What feature of native apps do you wish web-GMail had?
- ivm 9y ago
  Snappiness. It wasn't close even to Fastmail's web UI and took forever to load when my connection was slow.
  - euyyn 9y ago
    That can't be attributed to playing to the lowest common denominator.
    - threeseed 9y ago
      If Google can't make the best web application then who can ?
- danpalmer 9y ago
  I'm on a Mac and mostly come from Mail.app, but many of these things would apply on Windows/Linux as well in slightly different forms. - Speed. It's sluggish compared to the FastMail web UI, and slow compared to Mail.app on my Mac. - System provided UI editing controls which would bring richer editing and consistent controls - Consistent hotkeys - I know Gmail has rich hotkeys, but all my other software uses a fairly consistent set which can also access a wider range of keys than a browser can do. - Automation - I use automation and tools like Alfred (/Quicksilver/Gnome Do/etc) and these can interface with native apps much more effectively through things like AppleScript. - Drag and drop (you can drag and drop much more than you might think on a Mac, and I use it extensively) - Centralised notification control in system preferences - Better (and faster) layout – you're constrained to a web browser so there's less you can do in terms of good use of screen real-estate. - Prettier – it might sound superficial, but I enjoy using apps that have a nicer design and Gmail, compared with many native clients, looks pretty terrible. - Real multi-window support - using new tabs doesn't provide the same interface or interaction patterns. - Real right-click support, with the options I'd expect for any other system app. That's most of what I'd like to see. Note that an Electron app like Slack doesn't exhibit many of these.

pjmlp 9y ago

Completly disagree. I only use GMail as gateway to aggregate my email accounts and synchronize with my Android devices, native mail client. On Windows and GNU/Linux systems at home, I happily keep using Thunderbird.

euyyn 9y ago
Without specifics there's not much to discuss. E.g. Thunderbird apparently only introduced threaded conversations 7 years after GMail did.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  I hate threaded conversations, so that isn't something I even value.
  - euyyn 9y ago
    Even if you personally dislike it, I think you can agree that it's one of the UX choices that made it storm over the alternatives at the time. Not all our individual tastes align with what's most popular, obviously.
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      Not really, I guess many jumped on it, because it was a free email server from Google. I still manage my own email servers.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ksk 9y ago

Believe it or not, in my experience, Exchange + Outlook 2016 stomps all over GMail. I find that its faster, searches quicker, and takes up _WAY_ less memory. I don't do any fancy things other than basic email, scheduling meetings, etc so YMMV.