As I recently joined the beta, here are a few feedbacks that I hope you’ll find useful. Even if the list bellow is focused on areas of improvement, let me tell you that my overall experience with the beta is really good so far. Most of the feedbacks bellow are about UI and UX tweaks, but my general overview is that your webmail is quite clear, pleasant and easy to use, and super fast!
Now with the feedbacks:
Discarding a draft should go back to inbox. Alternatively, the “draft” item in folders menu should be highlighted to make clear where we are (Currently, the previous folder stays highlighted in the menu)
On a mobile device or a small window, as soon as the folder menu overlays the messages list, selecting a folder should discard the menu. At the moment, its not always obvious to understand if the action has been preformed or not, it always requires an extra click while it could be more straightforward.
Top level menu (Webmail, Contacts, Files, Settings) is not available on small window or mobile device
Many buttons are just an icon and only provide a label thanks to a tooltip that appears on mouse over (e.g. compose window, “theaded converstion”, etc). This make the interface difficult to use on touch devices without a mouse (either mobile or tablet).
I find confusing that the search is actually global (e.g. in every folders). I think this is might be because the search field position suggest search will be contextual to the current folder. Also it would be interesting to be able to search in a specific folder. I don’t think this is possible at the moment.
Maybe it’s a matter of getting used to it, but I find the “Drafts” screen quite confusing for now. Every email client I used tend to put the draft in context with the appropriate conversation. Here, I can’t tell I have a pending reply just by looking at my inbox. Instead I need to go in the “Drafts” section and try to figure out to which message each draft refers to.
I feel like the compose window could benefit from smaller input fields (from, to, cc, bcc, Subject, etc), to make some room to the message content text area, at least on small screens/windows. For example, on my 13" laptop, even in fullscreen, the webmail header + “toggle folder pane” button area +email subject + input fields are taking more than ~2/3 of the screen height, leaving only 1/3 to write the content of the message (before scrolling).
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. I think a number of things you mention are new ideas that we can look at. We’ll reply further when we’ve had a chance to work through your suggestions.
Hi and thanks for the positive and extensive feedback!
Agree that discarding/canceling a draft should return you to the Inbox if the draft was invoked by Reply or Forward, which is what happens when clicking on Cancel Draft. I’ve created issue #888 in our issue tracker for the Drafts highlight problem.
Created issue #889 for closing main menu when selecting an item on mobile phones or small screens.
The top level menu will be gradually implemented for mobile phones as we transition the linked sections to Angular.
We will consider options for making icons more understandable, although space constraints on mobile phones makes this challenging for all mobile apps.
We decided to make the search function global partly because one often isn’t certain which folder a message is located in, and partly because the use of folders seems to be decreasing in general. We will consider options based on the feedback from beta testers.
It would be interesting with further details regarding the email clients you are used to. We are however considering integrating reply functionality into opened messages.
Created issue #890 for decreasing vertical spacing on smaller screens.
Thanks for your reply.
Here is a few additions details:
5. I’m not against a global search (especially as there is actually a way to filter the result ^^). I think my misunderstanding mainly came from the fact that any folder I might be exploring says highlighted suugesting the search is local while it is actually global.
6. I come from Gmail and also use Apple Mail desktop application.
l’m not going to complain if we get a decent UI with the options, but as far as I’m concerned, an help/doc section listing every available filter would be enough
I think we need both. We need something in the user interface to let you know options are available for more specific searches, but also a help page with more details as there are quite a few search options.
One example is on the login/signup page in my screenshot. “Log in below or create a new account” is redundant information, and should not be on that page at all. The page is clearly a login page, and the “Create Account” link is already there, in its logical position below the sign in button. The text above only creates confusion and clutter rather than helping.
I can see the idea behind the seven “7s” sweeping across the screen, but they take too much attention from how the page is intended to be used. My opinion is that this sweep of 7s looks cluttered, and there is a cleaner simpler way to incorporate the ideas of Speed and the Number 7 that would be more minimal. Remember, Less is More in design if done logically.
The three lines of text under “More Information:” looks really outdated. Too much text. Consider displaying this information in a different way, such as in beautiful responsive boxes with coordinating icons or something.
I signed up with a runbox.us domain, but when logged in, it incorrectly shows a runbox.com domain. Screenshot
The overall design of Runbox 7 is looking nice, but please consider updating your entire website (it really needs it ), and improve clean design methods everywhere.
), and improve clean design methods everywhere.