
Ask HN: Idea for a minimal desktop email client – would you use this? - nikkwong
Hey everyone, I&#x27;m trying to validate an idea and would love your feedback.<p>I&#x27;m big into email but not big into clutter; and the more windows I have open on my desktop the more cluttered my mind is. To this point, I&#x27;ve built a very minimal email desktop client that helps me stay on top of my inbox without having to keep a dedicated window open.<p>Would you use this? If there is enough feedback, I&#x27;d be interested in finishing the code and releasing an MVP. It&#x27;s customizable so you can choose fonts&#x2F;bgs&#x2F;sizes to your liking.<p>Overview:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getfractals.com&#x2F;static&#x2F;2017&#x2F;Frame%205.png<p>Compact:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getfractals.com&#x2F;static&#x2F;2017&#x2F;Frame%206%20(2).png<p>Compose view:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getfractals.com&#x2F;static&#x2F;2017&#x2F;Frame%202.png<p>Read view:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getfractals.com&#x2F;static&#x2F;2017&#x2F;Frame%203.png<p>Minimize view:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getfractals.com&#x2F;static&#x2F;2017&#x2F;Frame%204.png<p>Thank you so much for reading.
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zzo38computer
I use Heirloom-mailx. I made a status indicator to indicate how many email
messages there are, so I need not keep a dedicated window open to know if
there are any messages; rather, the same window is used for the system load,
memory usage, and date/time. But, I have my own email server, and don't use
Mac OS X. Maybe what you have might be useful for some people who use Mac OS
X, but I don't. But I think if you like it, you can write it anyways even for
your own use, and then you can also publish it even if it doesn't have the
options used by other users; I write software for my own use (but also publish
it) and so can you, if you like to do so.

~~~
nikkwong
I do like to do that, yeah. I am a windows/mac user and actually spend more
time on windows so I would be hesitant to neglect windows.

Sort of meta but I am sort of in between jobs right now and am just looking
for purpose and meaning. The last product I built that was strongly received
was 6 years ago and the failure to find product-market-fit since then has
really eaten at me. So I want to spend my hours toiling away at things that
people find useful, unlike most of my Show HN submissions. We humans are so
deeply social and after a while I find there needs to be some external
validation or I start to question why I'm doing what I'm doing. Anyways thank
you for your insightful comment.

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latexr
You may not need a dedicated window open, but it does look like you need
dedicated _space_. It’s unclear how your program would interact with other
windows or a cluttered Desktop. It also doesn’t seem practical for multiple
accounts.

From your screenshots it doesn’t look like I’d use it, even though I’m unhappy
with essentially every email client out now (Sparrow was the last good one).

~~~
nikkwong
Thanks for the feedback, that's super helpful. I suppose in a way you are my
target market since you're unhappy with current clients though. If I do go
ahead and finish making it, would you be willing to try it in exchange for
more of this valuable feedback?

Thanks so much.

~~~
wingerlang
I don't think he is the target market at all, the target is likely "extreme
minimalists", people who theme their setup more than actually use it.

~~~
latexr
I’ve reread my comment multiple times and still have no idea what about it
makes you assume I’m not such a user. I can unequivocally say you’re wrong.

~~~
wingerlang
Your comment seemed to focus on the practicality of it.

And I'm saying that people who would love this care more about the style of
it, not how it actually works to use it. I don't think you can have it both
ways.

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stazz1
It borders on the line of maximal instead of minimal because it integrates
into a greater interface instead of creating a fresh screen. I like that, I
think it would be important to organize in some strong ways, like several
"Visions" or "Aspects" (simply tabs) that could have thematic views on e-mail.
What if I want to leave an e-mail unread but don't want it sitting on the
desktop? I think that it's a nice idea but there should be preference for
notes to myself rather than messages from others, so maybe you can add some
fields for "notes to self" that could sit between e-mails, and e-mails could
be grayed out until I mouse over them. Those are the kinds of features I
personally would love to have.

~~~
nikkwong
Actually these sound like the types of things that I would really like to have
too. I remember for the longest time I was trying to find some sticky note app
that had a transparent background rather than those god-awful yellow default
backgrounds that draw way too much visual attention.

Just to make sure I'm understanding, you're talking about potentially having a
few tabs, one possibly being email, another possibly being notes, etc? Would
love to see if I could do something around that, maybe in a v2, a spinoff, or
something or other.

~~~
stazz1
Yes, for v2 that sounds perfect

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Stratoscope
Would you mind adding those image links in a comment? The URLs in your post
aren't clickable, but they should be if they are in a comment. Thanks!

~~~
zzo38computer
Overview:

[https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%205.png](https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%205.png)

Compact:

[https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%206%20(2).png](https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%206%20\(2\).png)

Compose view:

[https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%202.png](https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%202.png)

Read view:

[https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%203.png](https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%203.png)

Minimize view:

[https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%204.png](https://www.getfractals.com/static/2017/Frame%204.png)

------
dang
Please don't put Show HN in the title if a thing doesn't exist for people to
try out yet. This is in the rules:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).

~~~
nikkwong
Sorry Dang. Was not aware of that. Have not broken that rule in the past, and
won't do again.

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ken
I have many problems with email but I don't see how this solves any of them.
How do I see who these were sent to, or what mailing lists they come from?
What do the chevron and gear icons do? How does it scroll when I have more
than 4 emails? How does search work? How does composing work when I have more
than one draft in progress? Does it just ignore my folders/flags/accounts? How
do I move/minimize/etc these views if they don't have normal window frames?

This is the danger of judging any design by Lorem Ipsum. If it's not using
real data, I don't trust it to be a real design.

JWZ said in 1998, "Mozilla is big because your needs are big. Your needs are
big because the Internet is big. There are lots of small, lean web browsers
out there that, incidentally, do almost nothing useful."

The standard window frame controls are not a problem to me. In fact, my #1
gripe with every program that tried to customize them (e.g., Pixelmator,
Affinity, Firefox, 1Password) is that they screwed it up somehow and
everything would be better if they'd just used standard controls.

~~~
nikkwong
Yeah, I mean these things would all have to be figured out, and my guess is I
have a decent enough understanding of UX to be able to create a solution that
works well. Whether or not you and others feel the same way will determine
whether the product becomes successful or not.

------
blablabla123
For home use and personal E-Mail I prefer a client that can be opened and
closed. At the same time I disabled all notifications on my Desktop where
possible. So I might not be in your target group. Although for work use I lean
more towards a more present mail client.

In any case, I think that's a cool direction. I have a love-hate relationship
with Thunderbird since it has so many features that I don't use and some
features I need - at work for instance Exchange support or Encryption - have
only flaky plugin support. Also I totally not use HTML mail, on the other hand
console clients just don't work for me. So I end up using Web mail clients
which is not super practical always...

------
mtm7
This is one of the most refreshing designs I've seen in months. It's
absolutely beautiful. I'd be interested in a Mac version.

I don't know anything about the engineering behind an email client, so I'm
curious about the security aspect – would my emails ever touch your server?

Side note: you could post this on Dribbble if you want more beta users.

~~~
nikkwong
Thanks so much. Do you mind if I email you when it is ready and you can see if
you like it? No emails would go through me, there would be no centralized
server; you would authenticate and then your client would ping the mailserver
that you authenticated to.

That's a great idea to post it to Dribbble. I never gave my Dribbble account
much love, do you have any idea how to get it some exposure there? Thanks a
bunch.

~~~
mtm7
That's perfect. I'm glad you're not going through a centralized server. My
email is at the bottom of my about page: zeph.co/about

About Dribbble – a Pro plan might help you get featured more often, but I'm
not sure. I think it's basically a numbers game.

------
nikkwong
Edit: It is quite lovely to have gotten some people to look at this idea of
mine. I think I will go ahead and polish the code up and try to release it
this week. If you would like to try it out you can email me at
nikk@getfractals.com and I will send a link out when it is ready. Maybe spin
up a landing page too. Thank you so much.

------
factorialboy
How will it handle inboxes with 30+ emails in them? And the whole archiving /
labeling / folders process? I'd love to see concepts for those. I am, on the
lookoit, for a nicer email client.

~~~
nikkwong
I have concepts for those that I think would work well. Not sure how much time
I want to spend on an MVP but those items are probably necessary.

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hesk
It looks beautiful but how does it handle other windows on the desktop?

~~~
nikkwong
Hey thanks! In my imagination it would just be like a desktop widget so it
would probably sit behind everything else, although; I suppose I could offer
different options (pin-to-front) if anyone would be interested in that.

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artfulhippo
I would love to use it but I wouldn’t pay. I hope you continue development but
I understand if you don’t, since it’s hard to compete with many free
alternatives.

~~~
nikkwong
Yeah, I wouldn't expect it to cost anything but maybe there would be some
premium features, or something.

Thanks so much. This was the first comment I read that sort of validated the
concept, and is very encouraging.

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rohan1024
Hey none of your links are clickable nor they take me to relevant webpage if I
copy them. The browser ends up searching the URL

~~~
nikkwong
Ah burn. Strange because it's working for me. Thank you so much for letting me
know. Probably because they are not URL encoded. I just changed them, do you
mind trying again and see if it works. Thanks!!

~~~
rohan1024
Thanks. Those screenshots look beautiful. I would absolutely love something of
this sort.

I believe this is only for Mac though.

~~~
nikkwong
Thank you! Actually I mostly use windows, so would be interested in releasing
something at least for mac and windows. What OS are you on?

~~~
rohan1024
I'm on Ubuntu

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slenk
I need something for Windows so badly. Thunderbird is just so...meh...and
there is nothing else that I know of.

~~~
matsdb
Sylpheed[1] and its fork Claws Mail[2] is great email clients for Windows!

[1] [https://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en/](https://sylpheed.sraoss.jp/en/)

[2] [https://www.claws-mail.org/](https://www.claws-mail.org/)

~~~
slenk
I will have to check these out. I noticed sylpheed hasn't been updated in 2
years though

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Semiapies
The interface looks too much like desktop notifications to me.

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Lendal
Darn, I was looking for a telnet client that only connects to port 25.

~~~
nikkwong
Haha. I'd agree that would be about as minimal as it could get.

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mirimir
Those are some huge image files.

~~~
nikkwong
You're right! I apologize. I was just trying to validate this ultra-fast and
see if anyone was interested; I'll go ahead and resize them. I'm usually very
scrupulous about that kind of thing.

