Confusing "Mark as read/unread" icons

Runbox 7 Runbox 7 Webmail
#1

Hello Runbox,

First of all, thanks for the great webmail !

Still… I’m using Runbox for some months now, and everyday I find the read/unread mails icons confusing, for me their meaning is switched up.

Here’s a screenshot, with some explanations later

image
image746×250 28.7 KB

Mail is read :

  • The icon is showing the current mail status, which is an opened envelope : the button is showing a status, and not an action (this is fhe first source of confusion for me)
  • The tooltip is indicating that “pushing button will mark mail as unread”, tooltip and icon doesn’t match.

Mail is unread :

  • The icon is showing a closed envelope + a check status, there are two source of confusion here : “unread mail” associated to a closed envelope, “unread mail” associated to a confirmation check

I think that the following would work better (well, in my little brain though) :

  • mail is unread : closed envelope
  • mail has been read : opened envelope
  • the check has no utility here, it can be removed
  • the buttons should reflect action, and not status

I saw that it has already been discussed in december 2021, but I still think it could be improved.

The ticket author is saying the same idea :

a button reflects the action that it performed when the button is pressed: if it has an open envelope, the button will mark as read.

Best regards
MrPingouin

2 Likes
#2

Hello @mrpingouin and welcome to the community - and thanks for the detailed post!

We can agree that the icons may still appear confusing. In order to implement the best solution possible, could you suggest the icons you would like us to replace the existing ones with among those available here:

Thanks again!

– Geir

#3

Hello @Geir,

I think that the most simple designs would fit, like this :

What do you think of that ?

#4

@mrpingouin We have just released a new version with these icons – hope you like them!

Mark as unread and mark as read, respectively:

Mark as read unread

– Geir

1 Like