Email icons and menu's

The top of the reading window for each email is way to cluttered with a lot of icons. The email reading window would look so much better if some of the less used icons and options were moved to at least 1 drop down menu. Or a few drop down menu’s of similar functions and features with a clickable title for each drop down menu.

Hello. Would you like to suggest which buttons you find yourself using the least and then we can consider this as part of our feedback on Runbox 7. Thank you.

1 Like

This is just my opinion about how to better organize the mail window icons. View source, HTML settings & Original HTML and maybe Report Spam and Flag could be combined into on one drop down menu next to the Mark unread icon, I’m not sure what the title could be. Maybe they could combined into a simple circle drop down menu with a downward pointing arrow like the other one to the far right of the mail reading pane.

Considering how frequently all the rest of the icons are used, it’s better for them to be visible all the time. Another thought I just had was maybe the Mail pane icons would look better if they were turned into a kind of thick blue outlines so the solid colors don’t occupy as much visual space.

Another idea that just came to mind, the Mail pane icons could be outlines and when the pointer is moved over the icon, or the icon is tapped with a touch screen, the icon changes to a solid color along with the tip appearing above the icon. Along with turning a solid color, it might be nice to have the selected icon increase in size slightly. The first two idea’s would be great visual feedback, the third with increasing the size slightly may be unnecessary or over embellishing.

If the Mail pane tips will not be moved above the pointer and icons, an acceptable compromise would be to make the icon’s outlines that turn the same solid blue they are now when the pointer moves over them and maybe have the icon size slightly increase. This way even if the Mail tip is partially obscured by the pointer, there will still be visual confirmation for which icon is selected by the icon changing to the solid color and maybe increasing in size.

Maybe Spam could be moved next to the Mark unread icon and everything else after it condensed into one drop down menu.

I have never seen a Flag option for email. Is the purpose of the Flag to mark an email with a Flag for the inbox?

If so I think a star would be a better option because to me Flag reminds me of flagging something on social media for removal. Using the term Flag to mark something for a mail folder could be confusing for some users that think they are flagging or reporting an email.

Instead of just making changes to icons, menu’s and other elements and hoping for the best with users and possibly having to make further adjustments, a better option would be to offer between 2 and 4 different options for icons, some menu’s and other elements and let the users vote on them for a couple weeks to month here in the Community Forum.

Everyone could be notified via email with a link to the Community Forum for what to vote on, with the tally displayed as a percentage or bar graph for each choice and how many votes each choice has received.

It’d be too time consuming to do this for all parts of the mail interface. But it would be nice to have a vote or say in the choice for some of the important things like the design of the mail pane icons, the left hand menu and other parts that users frequently interact with.

To display the changing icon for a vote as described above, a gif could be made showing the pointer moving over an icon or menu and showing what happens with the icon or when a menu or other element is clicked or selected and it keeps repeating as long as it is on screen.

Another way to do the voting instead of the typical multiple choice and only selecting 1 answer, would be a ranked choice voting. As an example below, there are four options, I vote for C as my first choice, D as my second, A as my third and B as my fourth.

A. icon set 1
B. icon set 2
C. icon set 3
D. icon set 4

This way each user is able to express not just what their preferred option is but also how they feel about the other options should their first choice not be selected. Next to each option could be a box where each user can type a number 1 through 4 (or whatever the maximum number of choices is) so they can rank how they feel about each choice. Maybe this might make the process more complicated than it needs to be, but wanted to share it anyway.