Comment 158 for bug 691380

Revision history for this message
In , Vseerror (vseerror) wrote :

(In reply to Charles from comment #145)
> (In reply to Blake Winton [On vacation until Jan 9th] (:bwinton -
> Thunderbird UX) from comment #144)
> I had a few exchanges with Iago about simplifying the Widget, so hopefully
> I'll be able to post back here to try the new version soon and maybe some of
> your concerns will be addressed.
>
> > Well, it wasn't my decision, so I'm not particularly offended. (But I'm
> > also not convinced that only ever adding things, and never taking things
> > away is a path that will lead to good software.)
>
> Definitely me neither... but this is not one of those times. I absolutely
> love this addon, and can't imagine Thunderbird without it.

this is the case for many addons, for many people. Somewhere, there has been discussion about the standards bar for acceptance of addons into core. perhaps someone could post a link so discussion can continue in that venue.

> >> Ok, Blake, no offense, but you simply cannot be serious. It *does* make it
> >> more 'minimal', in the sense that it takes up less *space* *and* allows the
> >> user the freedom to put the searchbox wherever they want and be able to
> >> filter messages without having another huge toolbar taking up more precious
> >> screen real estate, which is *the* *whole* *point*.
>
> > I see that you and I are talking about two completely different things.
> >
> > I don't care how much space we take up, if we get an easier to use program.
>
> Sorry, again, no offense, but that comment just screams 'I know nothing
> about *good* UI design."

I suspect you take blake too literally, as we realistically aren't talking about gobs of space. Regardless, I don't see it implying anything about knowledge, but that the goals are different.

> >> Then you must have never bothered to read the opening comment. Too bad,
> >> because the loss of the movable search box was a huge blow for many, many
> >> people.
>
> > Perhaps it was, but I haven't heard that many people complaining about it.
> > (Maybe because Iago's add-on is satisfying their needs?)
>
> Well there was a lot of noise on mozillazine and other sites when this
> happened, but it was a long time ago (3.1 I believe), so sure, the noise has
> died down because people either found the addon, or modified their behavior,
> but I also distinctly recall a lot of people saying they switched email
> clients (it was like a 'last straw' kind of thing).

good or bad, change always brings these types of comments.

FWIW, we see very few complaints or suggestions in getsatisfaction about global search - even though there is significant room for improvement, as the aforementioned bug lists illustrate.

> > I understand that not everyone likes changes we make, but I still haven't
> > been convinced that the benefit of this would outweigh the cost.
>
> Well, in contrast, I honestly don't see the 'cost' in providing users the
> *option*.

there is *always* cost. more code always costs.

ATM I am not in a position to comment further about specific merits of the addon although generally like it, even though I am using it on one of my PCS, so please don't take that as a criticism.