[Evolution] Improving Interface Divider Visibility

["Jacob XXXX" <manadx gmail com>]

Hello, this is a suggestion for the project (I couldn't find a suggestion link, so I figured I might send it on the mailing list).

A few days ago I helped install Ubuntu on a friend's computer, and I pointed him to Evolution for an Outlook equivalent (I don't use it myself). He configured it without a hitch. But when I came back to check on him, though he had successfully sent and received his mail, he couldn't seem to display any of them on screen. I clicked the Inbox button. No list of his emails appeared. I wrote a draft and saved it. When I clicked the draft button, no draft item appeared. Just a white box where it seemed a list of emails should be.

Things were frustrating until I realized he had accidentally pulled the frame divider between the mail list and view frames to the top, where it covered the From/Subject/Date list and blended perfectly with the top panel. The only hint to the presence of another frame was the tiny perforated "grip" in the middle of the divider -- very missable.

This issue probably doesn't happen very often. Nevertheless, to prevent this from making the interface mysteriously unusable, when the user navigates to a new section (Inbox, Drafts, Junk, etc) and the divider is all the way up, the divider should shift down a little. The rationale behind this is: if a user is looking for new mail, they're no longer reading the current mail in the viewer and won't be disturbed by the reappearance of the mail list (which they need to see anyway). Either that or make the panel more visible, which would annoy experienced users.

In any case, I hope you can do something, because while it really is a stupid problem (I have no idea why my friend pulled the divider up that far; and why did he forget?), an aim of evolution is high usability... right? Thanks.