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This is version 2 for Kontact visual redesign

Mockup 2.01


The key ideas:

[size=x-large]"The Sets" [/size](it needs better word to describe it)
[size=large]What is "Sets"?[/size]
Sets is a groups of Email accounts (POP3, IMAP....), Feed (Atom, RSS), Address books, calendars, ToDo lists etc (all information handled by PIM)

[size=large]What is "Set"?[/size]
Example explains better
Lets say "Business set" has pop3 account to sales@company.com + IMAP my.name@company.com + RSS from suppliers (new products) + Customers address book + Employees address book + Presentations calendar etc. - all resources for the same subject.
Of course emails are displayed on email mode, contacts on contacts etc.

[size=large]How not to get lost?[/size]

1. 1 set - 1 subject
2. Ability to auto label emails by the email they are sent to etc.
3. If you'd like, you can use only 1 account per set, then there wont be any difference between regular and "Setted" modes.
4. RSS. If e.g. you suppliers updates not very often having all news near emails is useful - otherwise create a new "Set" for it
5. Use colors and icons for visual feedback.

[size=large]Managing Mails [/size]
By saying mails I have in everything I receive - mind both emails and feeds.

When setting up an account user could choose wherever to work in regular folders mode or gmail-like - tags mode or both (for each email address). In mock-up "Personal" set has gmail-like and 1 regular account, so the data is merged (emails are not files, there could be more than 1 email with te same title).

In folders tree menu as virtual sub-folders are shown only most important tags (e.g. by count of the messages or user defined). other tags are shown below tree as tags cloud, if user has may tags, hide tags with lowest importance (1 or 2 emails with that tag etc).

For visual feedback, tags could have colored backgrounds.


[size=large]Wizards [/size](better describing mock-up will be added later)
Basicaly it is a button that pop-ups a new email/contact/event etc list. + a more actions > add new email account + calendar etc.

To add an email account user would have to enter email address + password + auto label, all other info could be found out automatically by looping though all email account types, Only this fails, user would be asked for server address, user-name etc.
Simple and clear.

[size=large]Search[/size]
only ONE search field in whole PIM. Firefox-like behavior - start searching through whole database when start typing (optional). If in email mode -emails on top, calendar mode -events on top etc.

Support keyword -must_not_keyword tag:tag-tile etc like query input for beyter search experience.

krunner integration?
Maybe search engine for PIM could be used in krunner when searching for contacts? as a component?

Lukas wrote:This is my version how next generation Kontact app suppose to look like.
[...]

I think it is good to think about the future of Kontact. But I wont vote it until I really think it is useful for me. Some thoughts:
1. I hate the MS ribbon ui, I want a menu bar, at the least optional.
2. I have all my apps in a small icon setting and with small fonts.
3. Any design should work with different sizes of fonts and icons on different screens
4. Tabs are an important feature I would like to see extented to mails and not taken away again.
5. Kontact is not an app, but consists of different apps which can run independently. This to taken into consideration.
6. The list of messages in a folder still needs to be displayed, at least optionally.
7. The design should work in environment where a lot of folders exists. I have over 100 IMAP folders and I know I am not alone with this. So there still needs to be an (optional) folder search bar, but also the possibility to scroll in the folder list.
8. You should think about how attachments are presented.
9. I know this might be contradictional to the "contact is more than one app", but personally I would like to see an unified view for mails, news and rss. Meaning to have folders of this kinds next to each other.
10. It might be worth a consideration to think about including Kopete and SIP-phone app into this setting.
11. The status bar is definitely missing.
12. I see a potential waste of space with the first column. Part of the space is only taken by the lined up icons of the different apps.
13. A while ago I thought that it would be cool to implement the functionallity of the firefox extension Fullerscreen in KDE which would give applications more space because some parts of the ui only appear when they are needed. This reported as a wish. So far no reaction, but I still think it is worth considering. Unfortunately no screenshot, so you have to install the extension to see how cool it is.

With you starting this, I thought may be PIM people could start an official visual contest, like the Koffice people did a while a go, to collect ideas and to explore the potential ways Kontact and the independent apps could go.

Good idea to start this.
Hope my comments help.

Mark

markum wrote:

Lukas wrote:This is my version how next generation Kontact app suppose to look like.
[...]

I think it is good to think about the future of Kontact. But I wont vote it until I really [...]
Hope my comments help.

Mark

I'll take this into consideration

markum wrote:5. Kontact is not an app, but consists of different apps which can run independently. This to taken into consideration.

This is of course true, however it doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

The stand-alone applications themselves are also moving to more shared components, so a future version of Kontact could potentially just create a new interface based on them rather than the other apps.

Cheers,
_

The mockup is way too cluttered, also, those "Amarok 2.x" styled tabs (kinda like arrange vertically) are a no-no (bad. bad usability). However, I do agree in one thing, the mail could be opened inside the main window (since it covers 99% of the user scenarios, the option to open them on an external windows should be kept and available on right click).

Version one of the idea
I keep updating 1st post with newest ideas
[size=x-small]This is my version how next generation Kontact app suppose to look like.

I have tried to merge all the best from GMail, M$ Office '07, KMail and all other great apps I have ever used. please don't judge me if something looks to gmail'ish/ m%'ish etc The aim was to develop a simple but not plain layout for everyday use for ordinary people. This is not final version, so any comments are welcome

Please vote up if you think, that the idea as in generic is OK

This is ONLY view of reading an email (I havent finished other mockups yet)



text from picture

This is a brainstorm about how could new generation of Linux PIM client could look like (mail tab this time only). All criticism and suggestions are welcome

The idea is to create a powerful still useful and stylish PIM client, so NO user would think again about using gmail or M$ outlook (muhahaha ).

To start with, take a note about icon in top left corner. It is acts simmilar as in M$ office '07, but it also hides "file, edit, etc" menus. How often does regular user uses them when working with emails? Mostly one a ween average (anyway this could be optional). Nothing especially new about main tool-bar, maybe excerpt for search field.

But I've made radical changes in organizing emails in side bar.
First: the are 7 main folders (user still must be able to create some additional), but all mail is kept into All mail/ inbox folders, but to manage them program uses labels / tags ( or whatever you would like to call them). X most important (key) labels are shown as "sub-folders" for easier navigation. This means that 1 email could be in more than one "sub-folder" (like this email in Brainstom and Beta "sub-folders"). I don't think users could find this confusing, because in each email all labels will be shown and user will know that he/she would find the same email in all those "sub-folders".
Full tag could is shown lower than folders.

Second: merged accounts - like in this example Business account could contain information from my.name@mycompany.com and info@mycompany.com (forwarding doesn't fit, because e.g. info@mycompany.com could be reviewed by other manager too using IMAP). Personal account holds all gmails, msns mail.ru etc accounts - I can't make them forwarding and I don't care to which account I receive emails.

As you see, near FROM field there are displayed all tags associated with this message and a text field, so user could easily type and ad new tags.

I still don't know where to place Mail, Contacts etc tabs, so I left both options, but I think I like placing as icons in top more intuitive...

Chears [/size]

The concept of, "Sets" is a great one: this could possibly be achieved with Akonadi. However, I very much dislike the implementation: I very much like the current left-most icon-column-thingy-ma-bobby. I think one of the best ways to implement this would simply be to have a, "Sets" icon below the others currently there, with possibly tree-view-like sets showing related E-mail boxes etc.

Madman wrote:The concept of, "Sets" is a great one: this could possibly be achieved with Akonadi. However, I very much dislike the implementation: I very much like the current left-most icon-column-thingy-ma-bobby. I think one of the best ways to implement this would simply be to have a, "Sets" icon below the others currently there, with possibly tree-view-like sets showing related E-mail boxes etc.

Left-most icon-column-thingy-ma-bobby - if you have in mind toolbar with email/ contacts options etc, it is a toolbar and KDE toolbars can be shown in left/righttop/bottom/ icons/text + user can add its own buttons

great idea! I realy like this clean design!

+1 for this

Whatever happened to this (re)design discussion? I love the thought of Kontact, and I use it on my KDE system, but It has always seemed a little 'klunky' to me. (pardon the "K" word!)

I have to use Outlook at work and it is so slow!
But I'm used to it and that is what I'd like to see my Kontact designed like. I try to arrange the layout like Outlook, but just can't ever get it to 'look right.' I think it's the panel which lists the emails. The text and threading is all too large, bold and intrusive. It just never looks right. I know that's a subjective, but I bet most here know what I mean.

I think a few little visual gui tweaks could make kontact a superb user experience!

I enjoyed the user's second design mockup. I like how he puts all the app icons in the collapsable panel with 'mail' just like Outlook does. Why not add this config option? Why force the user to settle for less, or force hi to settle for wasted space if he doesn't wish it?

Hi Mshelby

As far as I know nothing gad happened related to Kmail's user interface.

Primary because the KDE PIM team is working hard on porting entire KDE PIM to use Akonadi (an unified service to stolre all your emails, contacts, calendars, etc) (it's a good thing).

Since it's been delayed a few times its clearly a hard job but its going go final release (KDEPIM 4.6 beta4 was recently released)

The good thing, is that thanks to Akonadi it is going to be possible to write simple applications just comfortably organize messages, or just to write new ones without worrying how to get or how not to loose your important data

But for now, we have to stick with the good old current Kmail interface

That's a very good mockup, well thought through, and you've clearly got some pretty good UI/design skills.

On a realistic note, you're trying to change too much for it to be a viable task. Whilst it's good to think big every now and again, in this picture you've presented you've changed everything from the window decoration to the tab bars, to the actual part of the KMail interface.

If I were a developer implementing this, I would an unfeasible amount of things to do.

In order to see this go somewhere, I would like you to try and break this down into detailed much smaller components:
How the message list should look
How the account/folder list should look
(trying to use KDE styles where possible)

What impresses me about these mockups is that they are extremely soft on the eyes. I use outlook 2010 at work and the lines in the application are very soft and easy to look at. This looks even better though. There seems to be a lack of polish in Kontact with regards to colouring and spacing making it feel a bit cramped.