Some thoughts sent to my inbox from Mike Harris. Wanted to make sure they're on the record.
-Brent Begin forwarded message: > I imagine that you folks are being flooded with about 7.9 googolplex > tons' worth of input into the e-mail client. But, what the hell, I > might as well throw my own thoughts into the hopper as well. > > I'm a former user of what was, in my opinion, Letters.app' predecessor > for a "pro" e-mail client -- Mailsmith. Unfortunately, Bare Bones > Software pretty much let the application die a slow, lingering death, > and its userbase migrated piecemeal away from the app, until nowadays > it's more of a curiousity. > > However, the lessons I learned from being a longtime user offer some > feedback here. So, anyway, here are my thoughts at the moment. Hope > they're of some use. > > CUSTOMIZATION. I would suggest that this is going to be this client's > best and most needed feature. Pro users oft gain their speed from > their work environment being precisely the way they want and have > configured it to be: the speed of their workflow comes from knowing > their work environment (i.e. program UI) as well as the back of their > hands. A minutely small example: it utterly bugs the hell out of me > that when Gmail inserts my signature, it puts four carriage returns > after it that I always have to clean up. Let me configure everything > humanly possible under the sun with this client. > > AUTOMATION. No e-mail client for me has really been a "godsend" yet, > and that's because nothing acts as a second skin. Let me, for > example, write rules that prep replies. If the e-mail being replied > to is from my father's e-mail address, open an e-mail with "Dad," two > carriage returns, "lorem ipsum", two carriage returns, and "Mike," and > position the cursor appropriately. If it is programmatically > possible, let it observe the user's workflow and then suggest. "I > notice that every time you've received this message you've archived it > without reading it. Should I make a rule to always mark it as read > and archive it?" I can't stress this area enough -- automation will > be the key to make this application the standout from the pack for the > power user. > > PLAIN-TEXT FRIENDLY. There's a contingent amongst pro users who just > want to live their plain-text e-mail world. It was one of the biggest > draws for Mailsmith, believe it or not. Let there be a switch > somewhere that as much as possible makes the user's world plain text. > Most HTML e-mails come with a plain text alternative, and for those > that don't, the HTML could easily be run through links/lynx for a > plain text equivalent. Even Gmail doesn't let me do this -- if > someone sends me HTML mail, I get the HTML, and it even forces "rich > formatting" upon me at first when I open my reply. > > UNIVERSALITY. I heard someone else suggest that the application > handle someone's Facebook inbox. It's not a bad idea -- social > networking e-mail is something sorely in need of integration with > normal e-mail. I don't know if it's possible. But even if it's not > "possible" -- it's still *possible*. Have the app have a screen > prompting the user to check off the appropriate "notify by e-mail" > settings on the Facebook page, then autodetect those notification > e-mails and filter them appropriately. People's e-mail no longer > solely lives in their inbox. > > UNITASKING. I recently started using WriteRoom in conjunction with > the It's All Text Firefox extension in Gmail's boxes. The presence of > a distraction-less full-screen composition window to write replies in > is a ... Godsend. Check out "Zen Habits" or "mnmalism" or etc. -- the > whole "do one task at a time and do it well" concept has really taken > off and is applicable to e-mail. For a lark, check out the Minimalist > Gmail extension. _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list List help: http://lists.ranchero.com/listinfo.cgi/email-init-ranchero.com
