Mail User Interface suggestion...
I was discussing Mail interfaces with my friend last night - about how much Yahoo!'s AJAXy client sucks - I only use it because it is marginally faster overall for reading mail, but it looks (and performs) just like Outlook - UGGH.
I came in to work today and looked at the list of email presented by the client. It look something like this:
| Sender | Subject | Date |
| Kmart | Super Special Deal | Today |
| Julie | Save the Environment | Today |
| James E. Lee | Something cool | Today |
| Buy.com | Super special on HD TVs | Today |
| Crutchfield | Does your HDTV sound good? | Today |
| Cindy Gould | Something from mom | Today |
Quick - there's two emails in the list I actually care about - which is it?
Right, the one from my friend James, the other from my mom. The other emails are ads, which I don't consider Spam because they are from companies or organizations I have previously had contact with, and so I let them into my email - though I usually delete all that stuff. But it was annoying that amongst the clutter, there was one thing I cared about and the rest I didn't.
MAKE IT MORE OBVIOUS, STUPID
Here's what strikes me - there's an attribute the email I care about that the other emails don't have - and that attribute is trivially detected by - you guessed it - a computer.
Notice that sentence - what stood out? The word attribute, right? Why - because I highlighted it. If I can do that, couldn't the server do the same for the email I care about?
So what's the attribute - well my friend James happens to be IN MY ADDRESSBOOK. Bingo - let's have a feature that highlights emails from people in my addressbook.
This is so straightforward, I am shocked that we have had email for 20 years and to my knowledge this simple, straightforward feature has NEVER been implemented.
Let's take a look at how it might look if it were highlighted:
| Sender | Subject | Date |
| Kmart | Super Special Deal | Today |
| Julie | Save the Environment | Today |
| James E. Lee | Something cool | Today |
| Buy.com | Super special on HD TVs | Today |
| Crutchfield | Does your HDTV sound good? | Today |
| Cindy Gould | Something from mom | Today |
Ok, quick, which email(s) do I care about?
What do you think? Do you like this approach?
