531400 - New mail icon in system tray area looks outdated

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1492640

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[Guillermo Miranda Álamo]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091102 Firefox/3.5.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091121 Thunderbird/3.0

The icon that appears next to the system clock in the tray area has not changed since version 1.0 or 1.5, and has a very different style than the icons used in the mail folder tree, for example. It is a white open envelope with a green arrow pointing towards the inside.

Some people may suggest that it is awful, but I think it just breaks with the appearance of other icons and looks like it was designed 10 years ago.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Wait for a new mail to arrive.
2. Now have a look at the system tray (usually at the lower right corner of the screen.


Expected Results:  
I would expect Thunderbird to display an icon with more shades, just like the default colour for the inbox folder.

Comment 1

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

do you have a screenshot of that?

Comment 2

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Attachment: screenshot

But I can't find it in icon folder at this moment

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

Here we go:

Icon - http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/build/newmail.ico
referred to in http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/ident?i=sWideBiffIconData

Comment 4

[Guillermo Miranda Álamo]

Nice! I guess I'm not the only one who wants a new icon :)

Comment 5

[rsx11m]

This might also be a good opportunity to move that icon from mailnews/build to
mail/app/icons/windows, it would be easier to find there (and you can't modify the original anyway without affecting SeaMonkey).

Comment 6

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

Attachment: new systray?

my 2 cents:

From some nightlies, I see the new icon on systray (yellow triangle, generic warning simbol). I think that isn't a good metaphore because other apps on windows have the same icon (for example generic health HD checker, or for example also windows when notify to user that there are unused icons on the desktop).
I think that is better a new icon that reproduce the old methaphor (a message) or other that pointet to TB logo.

Comment 7

[rsx11m]

Aureliano, the triangle wasn't introduced on purpose but is a bug coming from
the recent libxul switch. The intended icon is no longer bound with the executable, and the triangle represents more of an error icon (bug 598942). Consequently, my comment #3 is obsolete in this regard.

Comment 8

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Aureliano, the triangle wasn't introduced on purpose but is a bug coming from
> the recent libxul switch. The intended icon is no longer bound with the
> executable, and the triangle represents more of an error icon (bug 598942).
> Consequently, my comment #3 is obsolete in this regard.

Ok thanks rsx11m ;-)

Comment 9

[Joachim Otahal]

Vote for bug 598942 ... I did.

Comment 10

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

Attachment: possible replacement icon

Trying the more monochrome style in Win7

Comment 11

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

Attachment: mockup of icon in action

Comment 12

[rsx11m]

To be honest, I don't see much of a difference to the current icon though; the corners are no longer rounded, but that's a subtle change.

To throw in another idea, SeaMonkey has the green new-mail arrow now on the side rather than in the center, and the colors are a bit more shaded (which would likely conflict with the "more monochrome" style of Windows 7, but other applications running there have mode shaded application icons as well).

> http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/suite/themes/classic/communicator/taskbar/taskbar.png

Anything along these lines? (center row)

Comment 13

[rsx11m]

> (center row)
s/row/column/ of course, rows differ in shading for active/hover states...

Comment 14

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

Attachment: something like this perhaps

Comment 15

[Guillermo Miranda Álamo]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Created attachment 484343 [details]
> something like this perhaps

Looks better to me, thanks Andreas.

Comment 16

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

Going to do some more experiments with it tomorrow, then I'll whip up a proper patch.

Comment 17

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> (In reply to comment #14)
> > Created attachment 484343 [details] [details]
> > something like this perhaps
> 
> Looks better to me, thanks Andreas.

+1

Maybe it's more better without arrow?

Comment 18

[rsx11m]

The arrow indicates the "something new came in" status, so I'd keep it.
Lower-right corner is a good idea, this matches other application icons
(e.g., for the remove-device icon visible in attachment 482243 [details]).

Comment 19

[Guillermo Miranda Álamo]

(In reply to comment #18)
> The arrow indicates the "something new came in" status, so I'd keep it.
> Lower-right corner is a good idea, this matches other application icons
> (e.g., for the remove-device icon visible in attachment 482243 [details]).

I agree, an arrow, a star, a clue that tells the user there's a new mail. If the tray icons were bigger we could even consider displaying the number of new emails (http://davidrpoindexter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mail_app.png), but I think this is a bit tricky to implement (it can be done for the main app icon in the task bar, some apps do that in W7).

Comment 20

[u382332]

For whatever icon you decide, just make it have some sort of color or shading and not just a plain-jane bland white envelope please.

Comment 21

[rsx11m]

(In reply to comment #5)
> This might also be a good opportunity to move that icon from mailnews/build to
> mail/app/icons/windows, it would be easier to find there

Bug 598942 is fixed, this link shows where you could change the icon's path:
http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/file/b71a8499c3ec/mail/app/splash.rc#l88

SeaMonkey could copy it from there if they want, or come up with their own.

Comment 22

[rsx11m]

This would also need a 32x32 version for the new notification balloon, introduced by bug 605972, as that's the size used by default on Windows 7.

Comment 23

[FeelsSoReal]

How about we reuse the new-mail icons used in the client itself?

Comment 24

[FeelsSoReal]

Attachment: possible replacement icon (reused from client window)

Comment 25

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Is this (and bug 616825) still relevant? Theme?