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[SM17 UI] Menu Bar tune up
Idea shared by kevind - 10/16/2018 at 7:07 AM
Proposed
k
IMO, SM17 could benefit from some simple updates to the top menu bar.

First, how about a little color to make it more visually appealing?
  • Outlook.com has a pretty blue bar across the top.
  • Yahoo has an image in the background.
  • The SM15 icon would change color when selected.
Second, how about moving the Settings (gear icon) over to the right?  Has 10 votes already:

I'm sure others have ideas also. Reply below and we can vote with a thumbs up.
Employee Replied
10/26/2018 at 8:59 AM
Employee Post
Kevin, thank you for these suggestions.  I will try to explain some of our design decisions below.  One reason the settings is not to the right is because it is a section.  Sections are highlighted while the items on the right--the advanced search, chat, notifications, and user menu are not highlighted.

We are trying to avoid adding any NEW things with the BETA at this moment.  Right now we want to make SmarterMail 17 100% usable and bug free as possible.  We have some VERY exciting news on how updates will be released in the near future, and we will be discussing community items very shortly after release.

I'm not declining this idea or any others currently, just trying to give you a heads-up on how where's currently approaching proposed ideas in our products.

Thanks.
k
Robert, I do appreciate the reply, and understand the need to publish a stable version ASAP.

When things settle down, consider that 99% of all mail systems have the Settings button on the right, so that's what users would expect in SmarterMail.  Make it open a new window like chat and reminders if you need to fit it into your design.

And looking forward to your exciting news about how updates are released. Hopefully it uses your forum and prioritizes user requests, like this one that's been on the list nearly 4 years and is in the top 10 all-time votes:

Kevin
k
Also, you'll need to move the "New" menu button (+) over to the right because it does not fit your logic as a 'section' because it has a drop down menu. :)

Better yet, just eliminate the New button across the top and put a drop-down arrow on the blue "New" button (just like the Delete & Reply buttons) inside the mail section.
  • When you click New it goes into compose (like it does now).
  • When you click the arrow next to New, you can choose Calendar, Contact, etc.
This cleans things up and eliminates confusion. Maybe others can give this a thumbs up if they like the idea.
k
Wow, this is an old thread, but still contains some relevant ideas for improving the webmail interface.

Here's one more -- move the menu bar to the left side of screen, making it vertical. This would free up valuable real-estate so the UI can display more messages and a larger preview window.

Thanks!
S
UI definitely needs tweaks and to be honest normally UI enhancements should not break anything anyhow - its normally the coding layer that breaks more often. That being said, I guess you know what your talking about.

Its about time a blog post about what is coming up is shown, because as usual and every year before that for me - I tend to feel like not renewing, and end up renewing at very last second. An early update would just kind of make me feel like renewing in advance and forgetting about everything else. Just my few cents of thought.

We have some VERY exciting news on how updates will be released in the near future, and we will be discussing community items very shortly after release. - OTA  updates or one click updates finally? 

Hopefully the update can be one click from the admin web panel without having to login in to RDP every time download, install and reboot.
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