I really like where this is going. I particularly like the last approach. I think that having a horizontal combination on the sidebar ICON + LABEL is a great idea. Having the text below by default may make it seem heavy. If possible, can you gear toward that?

I wonder if there are other ways that we can take a conversation email thread. I mean visually. I have see a few ways to deal with this and I haven't yet seen something that is as satisfying. What other ideas do you have for a visual representation for conversations?

What needs design too is the startup of the application. If Akonadi is already running there is no need for a splash screen etc. since it should be really fast started, but when Akonadi is not yet running, the client needs to wait until Akonadi is started.

Nice layout - for users that need a very simple email client. To take it to the extreme: Why don't you have emails from all folders in the list? Perhaps with some kind of label or similar identification, and with a quick filter above the list. Doing so would make the sidebar dispensable.

I'd prevere a costumize, nice easy to use (for users and power users) mail client and no simple client with lack of functionallity.

I think you can have both. Simple client for the standard user and if you'd like to play with your apps you can also have this opportunity and functionality.

And as every sidebar you can show/hide and show only icons, icons with text on bottom, ...

Heiko Tietze wrote:Nice layout - for users that need a very simple email client. To take it to the extreme: Why don't you have emails from all folders in the list? Perhaps with some kind of label or similar identification, and with a quick filter above the list. Doing so would make the sidebar dispensable.

Yes. I had the same thought. There is a solvable issue of including the trash concept with this. Other than that it works great.


Proof of having the same thought earlier

The Items in the dark sidebar of the earlier mockups are (user predefined) search folders. So they behave similar to a quick filter.
I will sketch up the traditional folder based approach as well so we have some things to compare.

Thomas convinced me that we also want to support more complex (folder based) workflows. The current idea is to have the folder sidebar hidden by default so it behaves as if there was only one global folder but letting the user switch to the folder based workflow if she wants to. More on that in later mockups.

anditosan wrote:I wonder if there are other ways that we can take a conversation email thread. I mean visually. I have see a few ways to deal with this and I haven't yet seen something that is as satisfying. What other ideas do you have for a visual representation for conversations?

Currently non. I will take a look at this once the folder/sidebar thing is solved. Do you have any ideas?

Looks awesome!
Personally I'd give the top bar more space so that the icons/text are more free floating and also to distribute them evenly to avoid a cluster on the left side.

jensreuterberg wrote:Personally I'd give the top bar more space so that the icons/text are more free floating and also to distribute them evenly to avoid a cluster on the left side.

The topbar height should be the same for every application. We will use the default value here.
I agree about spreading them out. This was an early mockup that was not meant for public discussion, but I wanted to show that we thought about not having the sidebar thingy at all.

Alright. Next round:

* removed the borders of the sidebar elements
* introduced blue highlightiing of current sidebar item
* introduce hover effect for MailListView and FolderView (and SearchFolderView)
-> this way it is easy to identify the sidebar elements as a clickable without the borders

I think the dark sidebar works great well enough so that I don't want to change it for now. I will wait for the outcome of the general sidebar discussion and reevaluate after that.


global searches instead of folders sidebar


traditional folder based sidebar + hover effect


hover effect on MailListView

Do you have a svg file?

andreas_k wrote:Do you have a svg file?

No. The mockups are not svg pictures. What you see are screenshots of the actual UI written with QtQuick Controls.
I can upload the code to a scratch repository if anyone is interested in directly working on them.

Cool like the new mockups.

I'd like to work in your mockups because they look realy good AND real code. Nice, nice, nice. So I draw in my svg files.

mbohlender Mockups
I'd like the traditional folder view looks great. The hover effects are realy nice. The only problem I had was to see which mail was read/unread, but maybe it is easier in the app than the png file.

for the search
I was thinking of a search bar in the bottom, with folder selction, so that you know where you are, also when the navigation panel is not visible and it would be easy to search also in all folders (I often use this). after the folder selection you get the traditional search (the baloo highlighting search would be nice).

When you look in the second mockup I think it is also also easy to understand where you are. When you have a Conversation "mode" in the mail conversation you can also reduce the folder list, but there are needed some improvements (subconversations and much more). It could look like a timeline (I don't use facebook).



for the mail area
There was a nice thread, I can't find, but there was written, that the content (text) is most importend for reading mails (not only scan). So maybe a separation between mail content (header and text) and mail information (To, CC, Date) could be nice and better to read.

It also work with the search bar on top, because you don't need the icon bar for replay, replay all, forward, delete, ... This Icons are for the single mail, so the icons are at the mail. Also it look like the same for conversation and non conversation mode.

andreas_k wrote:It also work with the search bar on top, because you don't need the icon bar for replay, replay all, forward, delete, ... This Icons are for the single mail, so the icons are at the mail. Also it look like the same for conversation and non conversation mode.

I'm strongly in favor of search on top, because one searches first and then looks at the results, and controls should always be arranged so that the things that come first in the workflow are on top, the last things on the bottom.

mbohlender wrote:Alright. Next round:

* removed the borders of the sidebar elements
* introduced blue highlightiing of current sidebar item
* introduce hover effect for MailListView and FolderView (and SearchFolderView)
-> this way it is easy to identify the sidebar elements as a clickable without the borders

I think the dark sidebar works great well enough so that I don't want to change it for now. I will wait for the outcome of the general sidebar discussion and reevaluate after that.


global searches instead of folders sidebar


traditional folder based sidebar + hover effect


hover effect on MailListView

Great updates mbohlender! You're doing really great curating and incorporating the great design feedback here.

Oh and in case it helps, you can directly embed and link your images by using

Code: Select all

[thumb=720]http://url.to.pic[/thumb]

change 720 to whatever width you want the thumbnail to be.