534188 - New mail filtered into folders, can't tell which folder

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 533695

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Jack Smith]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; 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/20091204 Lightning/1.0b2pre Thunderbird/3.0

When new mail arrives and is filtered into a subfolder, it is very hard to tell which folder it was filtered into.  The folder's icon no longer gets the orange star overlay like it did in Thunderbird 2.0.  After a day or two of using TBird 3 and being frustrated by not knowing where the new mail went I realized that the folder's font was changing to blue.  I am very slightly colorblind and could hardly see this change.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create some folders under your inbox, E.g.:
   Inbox\Development
   Inbox\Development\Bugzilla Mail
   Inbox\Development\Build Messages
   Inbox\Development\Developers
   Inbox\Development\QA
2. Set a Message Filter to move new mail from your bugzilla daemon into Inbox\Development\Bugzilla Mail
3. Wait for mail to arrive from your bugzilla daemon
4. When the mail gets filtered into the folder, the font for the Bugzilla Mail folder turns a dark blue that is very hard for a mildly colorblind person to discern from the black of the other folders.
Actual Results:  
The folder's font turns blue.

Expected Results:  
The folder's icon would have an orange star overlay like it did in Thunderbird 2.0

Comment 1

[Jack Smith]

Attachment: screen shot of a folder with a new message

The attached screen shot demonstrates the issue.  You can see that the Bugzilla folder is blue because a new message was filtered into it.  It took me nearly two days to notice this was happening.  I still have a hard time noticing it even though I'm aware of what's happening.

Comment 2

[David :Bienvenu]

This is a fairly vivid illustration of the dangers of using color alone for UI information. Perhaps the solution is a different theme...

Comment 3

[David :Bienvenu]

We're tracking this issue in bug 533695