[Design] when i dream of the perfect e-mail client ...

[Michael Toy]

i've been away from computing for a while, so as i dive back in, things  
look a little different.

i wonder if there hasn't been an over fascination with widgetry that we  
need to transcend.  it reinforces a view of humans as button pushers,  
and that seems de-humanizing to me.

i started by wondering if you could have a useful mail ui without any  
widgets, and as i mused on that, the deeper wishes started to come out.

what i think i want is the ability for my e-mail reading experience to  
be more like sitting in a funky cafe reading the free newspaper than it  
is like working on a corporate finance spreadsheet.

what if the feel of the environment for processing e-mail was as  
important as the ability for you to be able to quickly find the  
features of the e-mail client, sort of a holistic approach to ui  
design?  it might be cool for music to start playing and for the rest  
of the screen to change when i started processing my e-mail.

what if chandler's contribution to e-mail was the introduction of  
beauty into user interface? maybe you would bring in whole new waves of  
people who have been avoiding e-mail because the space was so ugly? i  
ran across this interesting reference ...

http://www.edwardtufte.com/920199304/bboard/q-and-a-fetch- 
msg?msg_id=0000KK&topic_id=1&topic=Ask%20E%2eT%2e

... to the idea that "human mind has evolved to identify useful data  
and that the sensation of beauty is a response to especially relevant  
information" which made me wonder if you could design a ui without  
reference to anything but beauty, and count on the intuitive power of  
that quest to deliver something which is useful.

along these lines, last night i was having a fun discussion with some  
friends, one was a painter and one was a graphic designer.  the graphic  
designer was talking about how much he enjoyed using a level, because  
it helped him to hang shelves in his house that were perfectly  
parallel.  the first temptation would be to label him as anal  
retentive, but as we talked more it came out the his perception of  
beauty was strongly tied to straight lines and hard corners.  the  
painter, meanwhile, was very different, prefering things which were  
more organic, curves, broken edges, things like that.

this brings forward the idea that beauty is very personal, and that one  
interface could be perceived many ways.  maybe there is a small set of  
"environments" that could be crafted, to appeal to various classes of  
people

michael's funky cafe
mitch's speadsheet
the organized soccer mom's neat todo lists
...

comments?

-- 
  michael toy
  (development manager, osaf)
  unrealistic dreamer
  will think randomly for food