29243 - Need better visual design for mail envelope icons

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect, P3)

Description

[Phil Peterson]

The more I see these icons (attachments and add-to-address-book) the less I like
them. I think they're not sufficiently visually distinct. Maybe something more
like the toolbar icons would be more helpful.

I'm also wondering whether we should try to integrate mscott's menu with the
icon. Just a thought. The UI design of widgets in the envelope area just isn't
holding together, IMO.

Comment 1

[jglick]

Reassign to Shuang since she is creating the icons.

What do you mean by "integrate mscott's menu with the icon"?

Comment 2

[Phil Peterson]

> What do you mean by "integrate mscott's menu with the icon"?

I mean that when you click on a recipient link, you get a menu with a couple of 
things you can do with that recipient. If we think that's a good idea, why 
wouldn't we make that available on the Add To Address Book button? Alternately, 
if we think it's redundant, would we remove the Add To Address Book button? 

Comment 3

[Richard Zach]

It needs a tooltip, too.

Comment 4

[Phil Peterson]

*** Bug 30727 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 5

[Phil Peterson]

Another thing I think is important: the appearance of the attachment icon should 
be noticeably different when the message contains attachments, vs. when it 
doesn't.

Comment 6

[Scott MacGregor]

Hmm but we don't show an attachment icon if there aren't any attachments in the
message. So why would it need to look different? =)

Comment 7

[jglick]

mscott is correct.  Like 4.x, no attachment icon is shown if there are no 
attachments.

Comment 8

[Phil Peterson]

Ok, how about this then. Could the attachment icon be more different than the 
message envelope? Could we use the dark blue/light blue/white color scheme like 
the toolbar buttons?

Comment 9

[shuang (gone)]

Leave it till after beta 2: I don't have anyone can work on this now, and I will 
be on sabbatical 03/20-04/28.

Comment 10

[jglick]

Some potential alternate attachment icons for ideas/thought:

http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm1.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm2.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm3.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm4.gif

Comment 11

[Phil Peterson]

Thanks for looking into this Jennifer. Attachm2.gif and attachm3.gif are zero bytes.

Comment 12

[jglick]

Fixed.  If folks have general ideas for what they would like to see, this will 
help once Shuang returns or our new graphic artist starts. (May 1).

Comment 13

[selmer (gone)]

Paul, can you reassign this for us?  Thx, Steve

Comment 14

[hangas]

Sending to Jennifer.

Comment 15

[jglick]

OK, Jen's attempt at some better icons:

Add to AB:
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/AddAB1.gif  (16x16)
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/AddAB2.gif   (17w x 16h)
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/AddAB3.gif  (16x16)
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/AddAB2.gif  (16x16)

I like #2 but it is 17 x 16.  Is that ok?  If not #1 or #3.  

Attachment:
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm1.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm2.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm3.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachm4.gif

I like #1.

Phil, are any of these acceptable?

In addition, adding menu functionality to to AB button is a good idea. We could 
have a dropdown menu when the AB button is clicked:  

"Add Sender to AB"
"Add all Recipients to AB"  

Comment 16

[Phil Peterson]

Not sure if I have an opinion based on the one-color icons shown here. What 
would they look like in the envelope area? Would we use the blue toolbar button 
color? Or would we use the gray envelope area color? As I said in my original 
comments in the bug, I think some visual distinction (or maybe contrast is a 
better word) would help.

Comment 17

[jglick]

Attachment: Mail1b.gif

Comment 18

[jglick]

Attachment: Mail1.gif

Comment 19

[jglick]

How is this?  See attachments.  I like Mail1b.gif better.

Comment 20

[Phil Peterson]

Mail1b.gif works for me

Comment 21

[jglick]

Attachment: Mail1c.gif

Comment 22

[jglick]

At the Mail Issues meeting today we discussed the Mail Evelope area. Team liked 
the 'Add to AB" icon in Mail1b.gif but wanted the swiggles removed. Mail1c.gif 
show the icon revised.  If there are no objections, this is what we'll use.

Icons for Add to AB and Attachment are here:
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/addtoab.gif
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/Misc/Icons/attachment.gif

Reassign to mscott to implement.

Meeting notes can be found here:
http://gooey/client/5.0/specs/mail/messenger/MeetingNotes/Notes_Envelope_6_8_00.
html

Comment 23

[scottputterman]

moving to M18 and nominating for beta3

Comment 24

[scottputterman]

mail triage marking [nsbeta3-]

Comment 25

[Scott MacGregor]

this is just a new icon which jennifer already gave us. we'll get this in there
for beta3.

Comment 26

[lchiang]

Yes, this bug has a mail6 keyword so if the fix is easy and trivial, we can 
change to a + to fix.

Comment 27

[jglick]

This bug has been fixed (by me!) with check-ins for Modern and Classic skin 
cleanup bugs (46423 and 46519).

Attachment icon updated for both Modern and Classic skins.

Comment 28

[Scott MacGregor]

Awesome!! Congrats on your first set of mozilla checkins!

Comment 29

[jglick]

Thank you!  This engineering stuff is tough!  :-)

Comment 30

[[e-mail] (gone - use [e-mail] instead)]

VERIFIED to get off mscott's radar.