Open Bug 310635 Opened 19 years ago Updated 2 years ago

need to differentiate mark junk/mark not junk toolbar icon(s)

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

x86
All
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: mikel, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 2 open bugs)

Details

(Whiteboard: icon-needed)

It's counterintuitive that the trash can icon in the toolbar can both Mark Junk
and Mark Not Junk with the only visual difference being the tooltip that appears
after hovering over the icon.

One way to implement this is the way Novell Evolution does it: one button for
mark junk, one for mark not junk.  (Or does it have delete spam/delete ham?)

Another alternative is for the toolbar item to have two icons: one that shows
clicking will mark as junk, one that shows that clicking will mark as not junk.  

A naive first attempt at this could be as simple as one having a red cross or
line over the original icon when the opposite action will be taken.  Possibly
better would be having the trash can icon overlayed with an arrow that shows
whether the message is going into the trash (being marked as junk) or going out
of the trash (being marked as not junk).
In TB version 2 beta 1 the only difference is the button text. IMO this does not improve things very much.
QA Contact: front-end
Blocks: 321655
I'm going to encourage this change for TB3: adding blocking-thunderbird3?

In junk training, it is important to train both ham and spam. In the current UI, uncertain emails are only given the option to train as spam. As we increase the visibility of uncertain emails, users will need to decide which is spam, and which is ham. Though the keyboard shortcut works for this, the many non-keyboard users should also have buttons to accomplish this decision.
Flags: blocking-thunderbird3?
I suspect having two buttons is the right way to go, as having context-dependent behavior is 1) expensive (need to update toolbar on every selection operation), and 2) ambiguous if some junk and non-junk messages are selected.

I don't think it'd block, but it'd be nice to have.  Using 'icon-needed' because it seems like a good idea.
Assignee: mscott → nobody
Flags: wanted-thunderbird3+
Flags: blocking-thunderbird3?
Flags: blocking-thunderbird3-
Whiteboard: icon-needed
marking p2, leaving wanted.
Priority: -- → P2
would need to be b2 since it might involve ui changes
Target Milestone: --- → Thunderbird 3.0b2
I don't think the toolbar is the right place for this kind of change.  Toolbar buttons that change meaning based on focus are often a source of pain and confusion.

While ( Junk ) and ( Not Junk ) are buttons that make the most sense when one of them appears directly connected to a message that is not marked junk or marked junk respectively.

Taking this off wanted until we have a non-toolbar button solution.
Flags: wanted-thunderbird3+ → wanted-thunderbird3-
Priority: P2 → --
Target Milestone: Thunderbird 3.0b2 → ---
"Toolbar buttons that change meaning based on focus are often a source of pain and confusion."

Which is precisely the problem with the current implementation.

But sure, if you wanted it to be in a per-message information bar, I guess that could be OK.
In bug 449691 we're starting work on a message reader that contains actions buttons within it such that relevant buttons are available on the message and irrelevant buttons are hidden.  This change alleviates the toolbar button problem.
Blocks: junktracker
Severity: normal → minor
See Also: → 523252
Severity: minor → S3
OS: Windows XP → All
See Also: → 733837
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