Hey Berdir and all,

I've gathered here some usability suggestions for the /messages page.

For new messages, I think we may want to also bold other columns besides just the message subject. Gmail, for instance, puts all displayed columns in boldface. Visually, I think it might be easier to read with the Participants, Messages, Last Updated, and Started columns in bold for new messages.

Additionally, Gmail changes the row background color for new messages and I can see this helping readability (with a light yellow background tint on the rows of new messages).

Thoughts?

--Ben

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#7 privatemsg_all_bold_correct_default_sort_order.patch1.18 KBberdir

Comments

naheemsays’s picture

naheemsays commented

The problem with highlighting the background is that we have no idea what the default background colour for the table row in any theme would be.

making the other columns to be bold along with the subject may be a good idea.

BenK’s picture

BenK commented

@nbz: One option for highlighting the background color would be to make it configurable at the module settings. This way, the site administrator could manually select the appropriate color that best fits the current theme.

--Ben

naheemsays’s picture

naheemsays commented

@Benk - if it will be made configurable, the developer already has the option to modify the css and theme files anyway.

I don't think always adding more and more options is a good idea.

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented

I'm on nbz's side here.

Imho, we have two design (visual design) goals:

1) Look "ok" and usable in as many themes as possible. A background color imho is against that.

2) Make it possible to easily change/extend the visual design to help site developers in having Privatemsg looking great for their specific theme. Possible and easy for me means for example, that we have useful css classes so a specific theme can for example add a background color that matches the theme. Or if that is not enough, provide easy to override theme functions/templates.

Adding configuration options is too much in my opinion, because once we have that, there will be another issue that wants another thing to be configurable. And so on. What we *could* think about is color.module support, but I'm not sure if that is possible in a way that still works for non-color.module compatible themes.

BenK’s picture

BenK commented

@Berdir: That makes sense. The key for me, then, is that there are easy-to-modify CSS classes (because CSS is something that's easy enough to override without actually forking the module). Is there a CSS class currently assigned to the entire row if the message is new? That would be enough to do the trick.

--Ben

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented

In theory yes. Because of a bug (that is fixed in the other issue where this started), it is not displayed in D7 right now, but it is there. Every column has a class and rows with unread messages have a class called privatemsg-unread. The css definition to make the subject look bold looks currently like this:

.privatemsg-unread .privatemsg-list-subject {
  font-weight: bold;
}

By replacing ".privatemsg-list-subject" with "td", all table cells in that row should have bold text then. And it is just as easy to add a background color to the whole row (or specific columns).

This isn't on my priority list right now, but if you (or anyone else) create a patch, I will commit it.

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented
Status: Active » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new privatemsg_all_bold_correct_default_sort_order.patch1.18 KB

The attached patch makes the whole line bold and also fixes the wrong default sort direction. Please test.

I suggest we commit this once confirmed working (set to RTBC once you have!) and then optionally discuss further ideas if you have any

BenK’s picture

BenK commented
Status: Needs review » Reviewed & tested by the community

I've tested the patch in #7 and everything works great. The entire line is bold and default sort is correct. So I think this issue is fixed and ready to commit.

I'll continue to brainstorm usability improvements, but we can do that on separate issues.

Thanks, Berdir!

--Ben

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented
Version: 7.x-1.x-dev »
Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Patch (to be ported)

Commited to 7.x-1.x-dev, the CSS change needs to be backported to 6.x-2.x-dev.

berdir’s picture

berdir
Primary language German
Location Switzerland
commented
Status: Patch (to be ported) » Fixed

Commited to 6.x-2.x-dev.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.