[Design] Re: [Proposal] Accounts dialog rework and workflows for
Preview
Brian Kirsch
bkirsch at osafoundation.org
Wed Jan 10 15:40:11 PST 2007
Hi Mimi,
Overall this looks like a good solution however, I do see a couple of
issues.
First moving the testing of accounts to when the user hits the OK
button is problematic as we
discussed yesterday since multiple accounts may have been added. This
would mean if I created
two IMAP accounts and one SMTP Account all three would need to be
tested when the user hits OK.
This is complicated from both a developer standpoint (I would need to
store and resolve the errors for
each of the accounts) and the users standpoint (multiple account
errors to resolve vs. fixing one account).
In my opinion, we would be better served by limiting the testing to
one account at a time. Also, even if the
test failed the user should be able to hit OK and keep the current
settings. Perhaps, the server was
down or the user lost the internet connection. Theses are temporary
situations that the user knows will be
resolved. We should not inhibit the ability to save the settings.
Also when the user selects the create IMAP folders check box, the
testing account back-end functionality is expanded
to actual login to the IMAP server scan for 'Chandler Task',
'Chandler Event', and 'Chandler Mail' folders and if not present
create them and subscribe (IMAP term) to them. This further affirms
my assertion that testing should only
be performed on one account at a time.
Also when we talked yesterday the placement of the Auto-configure
button was based on the user entering
the server, username, and password and combining the actions of auto
discover and testing. If we are separating
testing from auto configure then there is no need for the username
and password to be supplied. Meaning the location
of the auto configure button could move. Also I think the auto
configure button should be grayed out until the server
host name has been entered. Also what happens if the user has already
filled in all the fields for an account
including the port / security etc. and then hits the auto configure
button. Does auto configure overwrite these values?
The other issue I see is with outgoing accounts. Right now with this
model we are removing the ability to assign
a specific outgoing account to an incoming account since the drop
down is going away. This is fine but what
happens if some one creates more than one outgoing account. In this
design there really is only one outgoing
account which would apply to all incoming accounts. So if you agree
we should allow only the modification of the
default outgoing account in the Account Preferences UI.
Regarding error / progress messages in the bottom half of the dialog
they would mimic the current testing dialog
i.e. progress bar, verbiage. In the case of IMAP folder creation the
verbiage would be "Configuring Chandler IMAP Folders'.
The error message would be "Unable to set up Chandler IMAP Folders:
$REASON". The $REASON would be the
error response from the IMAP server.
-Brian
On Jan 9, 2007, at 10:39 PM, Mimi Yin wrote:
> Hey, I sent this out to the list. I realized that we can't really
> conflate Auto-configure and Test account...but I think I figured
> out a way to conflate Test account... and Okay without running into
> the problems we discussed today. Anyhoo, let's discuss in the
> morning. Thx! Mimi
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Mimi Yin <mimi at osafoundation.org>
>> Date: January 9, 2007 10:38:24 PM PST
>> To: Chandler Design list <design at osafoundation.org>
>> Subject: [Proposal] Accounts dialog rework and workflows for Preview
>>
>> bkirsch and I sat down to review the Accounts dialog in light of
>> the Email functionality we're adding for Preview in Alpha5.
>>
>> Below is a summary of the changes we're making and a new workflow
>> we're implementing. Please review and respond with any questions
>> and/or comments.
>>
>> Mock-ups available at: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/
>> Journal/AccountSetupWorkflow
>>
>> I have also updated the email spec with this proposal: http://
>> svn.osafoundation.org/docs/trunk/docs/specs/rel0_7/Email-0.7.html
>>
>> =====
>>
>> PROPOSAL
>>
>> Simple simplifications of the Account Dialog
>>
>> Simplify the 'Create new account...' pulldown to only list the
>> following 3 options:
>>
>> 1. Incoming mail
>> 2. Outgoing mail
>> 3. Cosmo Sharing Service
>>
>> The corresponding 'Account types' are:
>>
>> 1. Incoming mail
>> 2. Outgoing mail
>> 3. Sharing
>>
>> Add in Grant's handy-dandy 'Auto-configure' tool to try and guess
>> the following settings for Incoming and Outgoing accounts:
>>
>> 1. Account type: POP versus IMAP
>> 2. Secure connection: None versus TLS versus SSL
>> 3. Port:
>> 4. Authentication required?
>>
>> Move the ability to download email from the user's Inbox to the
>> 'Experimental' menu. For ease of implementation, email will be
>> pulled down, starting with the oldest email.
>>
>> Remove the "Use as default 'from' account" radio button and
>> "Outgoing mail server (SMTP): pulldown from the Incoming mail
>> account form. (From dogfood feedback, we've found that the default
>> 'from' account radio button has been confusing users. While this
>> feature will certainly be useful in the future, it will require
>> quite a bit more design work to get right and it's value in the
>> Preview timeframe is questionable.)
>>
>> Remove the 'Use as default account for sharing' radio button from
>> the Sharing account pulldown. Instead, the 'Sharing account'
>> pulldown in the 'Share' dialog should always display the first
>> Sharing account as the default.
>>
>> Change the 'Sign up for an account' button in the Sharing account
>> form to text with a hyperlink.
>>
>>
>> Workflow steps: Adding a new Incoming mail account
>>
>> 1. Go to File>>Accounts...
>> 2. Select 'Incoming email...' from 'Create new account...'
>> pulldown
>> 3. Fill out Email address, Full name, Incoming mail server,
>> User name, and Password fields
>> 4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button
>>
>> (Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
>> waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
>> 2. Configuring account settings...
>> 3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and
>> Port fields are automatically configured.)
>>
>> {Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)
>>
>> 1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter
>> settings manually.
>>
>> {If Protocol = IMAP...} ([ ] Set up special IMAP folders...'
>> checkbox option appears)
>>
>> 1. User checks: 'Set up special IMAP folders...' ('Learn more'
>> link takes you to Preview end-user documentation.)
>> 2. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
>> tested.)
>>
>> (Display progress information:)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxx...
>> 2. Checking xxx...
>>
>> {IMAP folder creation fails...}
>>
>> 1. Error: Unable to add special Chandler IMAP folders to your
>> account. ([ ] Set up sepcial IMAP folders... checkbox is
>> automatically unchecked.)
>>
>> 1. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
>> tested.)
>>
>> (Progress information:)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxx...
>> 2. Checking xxx...
>>
>> {No errors.} (Done button appears.)
>>
>> 1. User clicks Done.
>>
>> Workflow steps: Adding a new Outgoing mail account:
>>
>> 1. Go to File>>Accounts...
>> 2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...'
>> pulldown
>> 3. Fill out Email address and Outgoing mail server
>> 4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button.
>>
>> (Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
>> waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
>> 2. Configuring account settings...
>> 3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and
>> Port fields are automatically configured.)
>>
>> {Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)
>>
>> 1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter
>> settings manually.
>>
>> {Server requires Authentication...}
>>
>> 1. xxx requires authentication. Please enter your User name and
>> Password above.
>>
>> 1. User enters User name and password.
>> 2. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
>> tested.)
>>
>> (Progress information:)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxx...
>> 2. Verifying...
>>
>> {No errors.} (Done button appears.)
>>
>> 1. User clicks Done.
>>
>>
>> Workflow steps: Adding a new Sharing account:
>>
>> 1. Go to File>>Accounts...
>> 2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...'
>> pulldown
>> 3. Fill out fields
>> 4. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
>> tested.)
>>
>> (Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-
>> waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
>> 2. Verifying account settings.
>>
>> {Account test fails...} (Display error message:)
>>
>> 1. Error: Unable to verify account. Please check settings and
>> try again.
>> 2. User fixes settings.
>> 3. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is
>> tested.)
>>
>> (Progress information:)
>>
>> 1. Contacting server: xxx...
>> 2. Verifying...
>>
>> {No errors.} (Done button appears.)
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/design/attachments/20070110/56ad9944/attachment.html
More information about the Design
mailing list