

Thoughts About Sparrow UI - mynameisraj
http://tumblr.charaveldesign.com/post/4729610738/thoughts-about-sparrow

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ddagradi
That's so rough. The current UI scales kinda awkwardly for multiple accounts,
and has definite usability issues. This makes it more unwieldy and potentially
impossible to scale past small numbers for accounts _or_ tags, while adding
two levels of information above the main content you want to view in the app -
your messages.

At the same time, it loses the clean and simple aesthetic of Sparrow, instead
deciding to add superfluous iconography, colors and labels.

That's just the main window though. Some of the additions to the message
preview view are quite clean and in keeping with the app's demeanor, though
potentially unnecessary, as the current interface accomplishes the same
clarity with fewer buttons and toggles.

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Dramatize
My biggest pain is when you select an account on the side and it marks the
first email as read.

I only want the email marked read once I click on it.

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rawsyntax
from the article: "While it worked fine with Tweetie because most of its users
probably only use one or two Twitter accounts, Sparrow built it’s UI around it
without thinking it through: What about people with several email accounts?"

Since it's a gmail client, I have setup one master gmail account that proxies
to all other accounts (configured through the web browser client), and have
setup aliases in Sparrow. It works great

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kuroir
This is something I also do. I have more than 5 accounts proxied.

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pdenya
I used sparrow for months and really enjoyed it but eventually had to switch
back to mail for exactly these reasons. I agree whole heartedly with all of
the points against sparrow but I'm not sure about the solutions...not that I
have better suggestions.

Either way, I won't bother opening or even updating sparrow until it gets a
universal inbox. I love the UI for the most part and I'm anxious to switch
from mail.app but for now the problems sparrow introduces are worse than the
ones it solves.

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kuroir
Doesn't the icons on the bar limit the amount of accounts the user can have?

Also note that Apple has some kind of regulations (and they're very strict)
regarding the UI.

I personally love the fact the docked mail listing expands to the right since
I have a dual 27'' setup. So it would make me sad if they changed this.

The preview part basically breaks what Gmail has polished over the years, and
to me it doesn't feel that useful to have the title on the messages, since
most of them are RE:

I like the easier access to "tags"; but I'm concerned that the approach you're
using would become problematic since I have many tags (I'm a gmail power user
who gets around 50 mails avg. which get filtered through different tags via
regexp).

But overall good job! I like when people expose their ideas. It's a good way
to get lazy people like me to debate on decisions.

Kudos.

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jarin
I have several email accounts and I'm overall pretty happy with the way
Sparrow works. I generally know which mailbox to search in, since each email
account has a definite purpose (personal, business, and one account for each
client that I help handle support emails for).

As for some of the other complaints, maybe it's just the way I handle my email
that prevents me from running into them. I use the keyboard shortcuts to inbox
zero every time I check my mail (going down the list and either archiving,
deleting, or starring emails for followup).

The only real gripe I have after using it since beta is the "All Mail" box
being buried in the labels instead of in the sidebar where it used to be.
Other than that, I can't say that any other gripes come to mind.

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Terretta
My biggest issue with Sparrow is failure to support "Unread" count across a
set of labels. Those with a high volume of mail often set up filters to pre-
file that mail. I then use Apple Mail's "Smart Mailbox" to roll up the unread
messages from only those labels that matter, while ignoring the labels
containing mostly bulk content.

For me, any program that interacts with Gmail and doesn't support seeing
unread count across labels, can't be used.

Disappointed. I paid for Sparrow, and wish it could be used. The update
wasting more screen real estate to let you choose between Inbox and another
label could so easily have been the killer feature it failed to be.

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loganlinn
Does Sparrow still force "Sent with Sparrow" to the end of signatures on
outgoing mail?

Edit-- I just confirmed for myself that it does at least in Sparrow Lite
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7400069/sparrow_lite_signature.png>

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abredow
You can change that. Like the iPhone, the signature just defaults to a
promotional message.

~~~
foobarbazetc
Except that there's far less reason for Sparrow to advertise itself like that.

~~~
foobarbazetc
I love it when people with vested interests down vote on HN.

If Thunderbird or Mail.app advertised itself on emails you send out by
default, people would be up in arms.

Do you see Gmail doing that? No. And even then, these three programs are
_free_.

If I pay for Sparrow (and I did, and it was disappointingly slow and had poor
UX -- but it sure did look pretty in the screenshots!), I don't want it to
advertise itself to everyone I email -- because I'm not here to do your
marketing for you. Let me opt-in to your poorly thought out self-promotion
instead of pissing me off.

Down vote away!

~~~
superchink
It's a new pricing model. I think they're calling it "shareware." The idea is
that they release "free" versions of software that are almost fully functional
but have small nags or annoyances to encourage you to purchase if you enjoy
using them…

~~~
foobarbazetc
I think you missed the point.

I did buy it. It still advertises itself _by default_.

~~~
superchink
I apologize for missing the point. You're right; that is annoying and no, they
should not do that by default.

Side-note: I just re-read my comment and I sounded like a jerk. I would also
like to apologize for that. The sarcasm didn't age well (to my ear anyway).

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benwerd
I bought Sparrow the first day I had a Mac, thinking, "this will be awesome."

Day four: I installed the offline Gmail app in Chrome, and Sparrow never, ever
gets opened. I would dearly like a native app, because the web app does have
its own issues, but this isn't it. I'll take functional over pretty any day.

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kevin_morrill
The lack of search across multiple accounts is a huge pain.

