Dissecting "Mail"
Concepts and features of the standard
Android mail client.
First look:
- Differentiation of new/read emails through background color.
- As a logo take the photo from the Contacts app or if n/a the first letter w/ random background color.
- A paper clip marks attachments.
Standard design elements:
-
Main Action Bar:
- Side Drawer
-
Action: "Write new Mail"
- Toggle Menu
-
List Menu (the Emails)
Side Drawer:
-
Lists all Email accounts.
-
Lists related folders.
Standard design elements:
-
Radio Buttons:
Switch between Email accounts.
-
Menu items (metaphoric icons):
Switch between folders relative to the selected Email account.
Side Drawer:
... having selected a specific Email account...
- All related folders get listed.
-
Recently used folders are listed too.
-
Folders with subfolders are marked at the edge.
Side Drawer:
... wrap-up...
-
Flat hierarchy.
-
Metaphoric icons.
-
The "Combined view".
- "Recently used" shortcut.
→ Accessible
List Menu:
Vertical scrollable list featuring a minimum of information.
-
Items markable by tapping the icons.
- The Toggle Menu hides "Add star"
List Menu:
-
Lets you delete messages by horizontal swiping.
- And provides an undo-feature.
List Menu:
... wrap-up...
- Vertical scrolling.
- Swipe-to-delete.
- Tap-to-select.
- Uses Contact-Icons or first letter.
→ Accessible,
delightful,
designed.
Reading a Mail:
... having tapped a list menu item...
-
You can quickly switch between mails due to the Page Carousel design pattern.
-
A minimal feature set is displayed. Additional features hidden behind a Toggle Menu and a Drop-Down Arrow.
Reading a Mail:
... wrap-up...
-
Page Carousel.
-
Reduced/hidden feature set.
→ Accessible,
delightful.
Wrap-up:
-
Androids "Mail" is a native app that comes preinstalled on most Android devices.
-
It sticks to expectations and provides a delightful swipe-to-delete shortcut and a page carousel for flipping though mails.
- Due to the reduced feature set it is highly accessible.
- It also innovative in its design, turning the first letter of the sender in a design feature.
-
The downside: "Mail" is mildly innovative overall and lacks state of the art features (e.g. "Threaded view", "Mark as spam", "GnuPG encryption").