Re: [Usability] Mail clients put the Subject field in the wrong place

[Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

On 17 Sep, 2005, at 4:52 PM, Samuel Abels wrote:
> On Sa, 2005-09-17 at 21:51 +0300, Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> > 2005/9/16, Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>:
> > > Hynek was using Evolution, a mail client that -- like most mail 
> > > clients -- puts the Subject field above the message body in the 
> > > composition window. As long as mail clients do that, and as long as 
> > > humans go through forms top-to-bottom, it won't be surprising that 
> > > they usually don't use the Subject line to summarize a message that 
> > > they haven't even written yet. As a result, e-mail recipients 
> > > worldwide will keep suffering Subject lines of the form "Re: 
> > > something" and "(no subject)".
> >
> > I wonder if the situation would be better or worse if the subject
> > field were at the bottom, as the usual thought after completing a
> > message is not "hmm, how would I summarize this message" but rather
> > "it's done, where's the send button".

Maybe.

> Maybe what he meant is that the subject line should be at the top of 
> the message header rather than below the sender/recipients.
> ...

No, I meant that the subject field should be under the message body in 
the composition window.

I'd also put the recipient fields underneath the message body, on the 
grounds that sometimes you're not sure exactly who a message is 
appropriate for until you've finished it. For example, if you started 
replying to a mailing list message, and when you finished you realized 
your message was more of a rant directed at the previous correspondent, 
you'd uncheck the "Reply to List" checkbox underneath (leaving only 
"Reply to Sender" checked) before clicking the Send button in the 
bottom right corner.

--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/