4 ms·

Google Inbox would be an example, but there are so many and they all work similarly. Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by typ

Google Inbox would be an example, but there are so many and they all work similarly. Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by type (promotions, spam, important, finance, family, etc.), and fewer buttons and options. Modern design looks nice, and it makes buttons for more common actions more prominent: new message is huge, reply is big, add label very small, etc., while in Thunderbird there are 10 times more buttons, and they're all the same size. It just needs a lot of work. I'm not a designer, so I can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but those I mentioned are the things that I notice and that I would start from. As for Google Inbox specifically, it gets rid of all spam and hardly ever gets it wrong. It also encourages you to get rid of useless emails thanks to grouping done well and a few related features, which made me achieve inbox zero for the first time.

ryukafalz 9y ago
>Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by type (promotions, spam, important, finance, family, etc.) Does any client other than Inbox have these?
- nkkollaw 9y ago
  Yes.
- __david__ 9y ago
  Servers have had these features for ages. I've been using Sieve scripts for almost 20 years.
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    > > automatic grouping of emails by type > I've been using Sieve scripts for almost 20 years. Do the Sieve scripts do the grouping automatically? Or is it based on rules you've set? They are definitely different things...
    - bigbugbag 9y ago
      Actually both, sieve filters automatically based on rules you set (or your admin set for you). More like same things, only difference is one you are in control and the other you are submitting to a third party who has control over your emails (and probably invades your privacy, profiles you, etc.).
pfranz 9y ago
I'm genuinely curious; can you name a few more clients and features? A lot of the things you called out sound like "smart features" more than an overhaul to the app (or significant UI changes). I think a lot of the trendy email applications that came out around 2012 (Sparro and Mailbox), were really interesting, but niche. They've seemed to have all gone away and only nudged the email clients most people use everyday. I do like Gmails categorization, but I don't know of another client that does it. I also assume it requires a server-side component to look at and categorize email by looking at everyone's. Maybe it could work like spam detection? Again, it sounds difficult to get right--not just a design choice. Regarding the button size, looking at Google Inbox all of the buttons look proportional to me. Phones lend themselves to multiple rows of varying size icons. Desktops usually have a single vertical or horizontal row. Mixing up the size can waste space. It's funny looking back at screen shots from Thunderbird v1. It had a row of huge icons. They've since been replaced by smaller text-only buttons. Phone and web interfaces have less strict standards and consistency (which I think discourage a lot of people). I do think they could get rid of some clutter by ditching Chat, Address Book, Tags and Filters, and hide "Get Messages" under a mouseover (like Fastmail's client). Leaving "Write" on the left and and a text box for filtering on the right--perhaps ditching that whole row by integrating those two widgets into other places in the UI. But I also wouldn't mind if they improved the backend, added some of those "smart features" both you and I mentioned, and left the UI as it was years ago.
bigbugbag 9y ago
Big buttons are not 'modern design' but simply symptoms of the fat fingers on a small touchscreen disease. Way better to have all UI elements working the same such as button having the same design. Automatic grouping of emails by type reeks of deep privacy invasion, a trademark of google. Besides this is something you can achieve by setting your inbox with a few folders and filters, this has been available in email clients before gmail existed so it's hardly modern. WTH is snoozing message ? How does this help with dealing with your email ? Just implement a proper GTD flow and sorting of your email if you cannot refrain from constantly checking your emails when you are not ready to act on it. Google gets it wrong about spam close to 85% of the time when you are on the sending side from somewhere else than gmail or one of the large centralized email services. Trying to reach someone on a gmail address is guaranteed to give you headache and soon you'll find yourself jumping through many hoops google has set for you, even then it's not uncommon that your recipient never see your very much valid email. Then again google inbox is not a cross platform desktop email client and is out of bound for anyone caring about privacy or preserving the internet.

ryukafalz 9y ago

>Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by type (promotions, spam, important, finance, family, etc.) Does any client other than Inbox have these?

nkkollaw 9y ago
Yes.
__david__ 9y ago
Servers have had these features for ages. I've been using Sieve scripts for almost 20 years.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > > automatic grouping of emails by type > I've been using Sieve scripts for almost 20 years. Do the Sieve scripts do the grouping automatically? Or is it based on rules you've set? They are definitely different things...
  - bigbugbag 9y ago
    Actually both, sieve filters automatically based on rules you set (or your admin set for you). More like same things, only difference is one you are in control and the other you are submitting to a third party who has control over your emails (and probably invades your privacy, profiles you, etc.).

pfranz 9y ago

I'm genuinely curious; can you name a few more clients and features? A lot of the things you called out sound like "smart features" more than an overhaul to the app (or significant UI changes). I think a lot of the trendy email applications that came out around 2012 (Sparro and Mailbox), were really interesting, but niche. They've seemed to have all gone away and only nudged the email clients most people use everyday. I do like Gmails categorization, but I don't know of another client that does it. I also assume it requires a server-side component to look at and categorize email by looking at everyone's. Maybe it could work like spam detection? Again, it sounds difficult to get right--not just a design choice. Regarding the button size, looking at Google Inbox all of the buttons look proportional to me. Phones lend themselves to multiple rows of varying size icons. Desktops usually have a single vertical or horizontal row. Mixing up the size can waste space. It's funny looking back at screen shots from Thunderbird v1. It had a row of huge icons. They've since been replaced by smaller text-only buttons. Phone and web interfaces have less strict standards and consistency (which I think discourage a lot of people). I do think they could get rid of some clutter by ditching Chat, Address Book, Tags and Filters, and hide "Get Messages" under a mouseover (like Fastmail's client). Leaving "Write" on the left and and a text box for filtering on the right--perhaps ditching that whole row by integrating those two widgets into other places in the UI. But I also wouldn't mind if they improved the backend, added some of those "smart features" both you and I mentioned, and left the UI as it was years ago.

bigbugbag 9y ago

Big buttons are not 'modern design' but simply symptoms of the fat fingers on a small touchscreen disease. Way better to have all UI elements working the same such as button having the same design. Automatic grouping of emails by type reeks of deep privacy invasion, a trademark of google. Besides this is something you can achieve by setting your inbox with a few folders and filters, this has been available in email clients before gmail existed so it's hardly modern. WTH is snoozing message ? How does this help with dealing with your email ? Just implement a proper GTD flow and sorting of your email if you cannot refrain from constantly checking your emails when you are not ready to act on it. Google gets it wrong about spam close to 85% of the time when you are on the sending side from somewhere else than gmail or one of the large centralized email services. Trying to reach someone on a gmail address is guaranteed to give you headache and soon you'll find yourself jumping through many hoops google has set for you, even then it's not uncommon that your recipient never see your very much valid email. Then again google inbox is not a cross platform desktop email client and is out of bound for anyone caring about privacy or preserving the internet.