Re: [Evolution] have you seen this message?

[Sejal Patel <sejal iname com>]

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Dan Winship wrote:

> So under what circumstances should a message be considered read?
>
> Some possibilities:
>
>   1) Like it is now, just document it, because of course everyone will
>      read the documentation and be enlightened.

Like with anything new it will take a little getting use to but it seems
to actually be the best user friendly way of doing this.

>   3) Messages should be marked read immediately upon being opened.
>      People can mark them unread again by hand if they need to.
>      (You can't toggle the flag by hand right now, but you will be
>      able to.)

Any HCI expert will tell you that end users want to do as little work as
possible so having to make the user go back and mark it is not read is not
a good idea.

>   4) Messages should be marked read immediately upon being opened.
>      People can use Shift + up/down arrow (or something) to move the
>      cursor in the message list without opening messages, and Return
>      or Space or something to select. (This is basically how most
>      Emacs-based mail readers work.)

Doesn't seem like a good idea.  Too many keystrokes :)

>   5) Messages should be marked read only after you've scrolled all the
>      way to the bottom of them. (This seems to make some sort of
>      sense, but at the same time seems like it could be
>      wrong/annoying. Do any other mail programs do this, and if so,
>      how well does it work?) (Also, this leaves the question of "what
>      about messages that fit on one screen and don't need to be
>      scrolled?".)

This actually sounds like a great idea but is going to be impracticle
because of those 1 screen messages.  This will cause a great deal of
confusion I think.

>   6) Like 5, but the spacebar means "scroll" if you're not at the
>      bottom of the message, and "mark this message read and jump to
>      the next message" if you are. (aka "DWIM mode")

I like the original 1.5 seconds thing better.  If they spend that much
time looking at a message and decided that they haven't read it then they
can go through and flag it as not read.

-- 
Sejal Patel - CS 1312 STA     "I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
   sejal cc gatech edu        Why so can I, or so can any man; but will
    Georgia Institute         they come when you do call for them?"
      of Technology           Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I