Plasma/Active/mail

Requirements and Supported User Actions for KMail Active

Requirements

C=core/basic features; program does not work without

P=performance features: Not absolutely necessary, but create the impression of a good product

Z=buzz features, not expected by default

E=exotic (not really needed?)

Safety / Capabilities

• (C) Support multiple accounts
• (C) Support standard protocols (IMAP, POP3, SMTP)
• (?) Supports authentication via NTLM (Microsoft Windows) and GSSAPI (Kerberos) Thomas: We should support these only if are essential for many business users.</spam>
• (C) Supports plain text and secure logins, using SSL and TLS.
• (P) Native support for inline OpenPGP, PGP/MIME, and S/MIME encryption
• (P) Filter spam (Integration with popular spam checkers, e.g. SpamAssassin, Bogofilter, etc.)
• (P) Provide user defined rules
• (E) Provide synchronization features (e.g. owncloud)

Receive / Read

• (C) Notification for new messages
• (C) Show text emails
• (P) Show html emails
• (Z) Show extended html stuff (background)
• (P) Replace text smilies with emoticons
• (P) Convert html 2 text (ability to display plain text only from an HTML mail)
• (C) Handle long lists of receivers (collapse/expand, cut, …)
• (P) Show details (email header)

Send / Compose

• (C) Create new text mail
• (P) Create new html mail
• (C) Select To/CC/BCC
• (C) Reply to Sender/All (What is reply to list?)list=mailing list. Not important for most business users, very important for people heavily involved in open source. I'll add a new P requirement for it ;)
• (P) Reply to mailing list
• (C) Forward message
• (P) Send as urgent
• (P) Request disposition notification
• (P) Insert signature
• (P) Attach file(s)
• (Z) Compress attachments
• (P) Check spelling (as-you-type and on demand)Thomas: I'd consider it a performance feature. It's not essential, but pretty much expected nowadays I guess.

Organize / View

• (C) Integration of international character sets
• (P) Mark item (read/unread, important, tag (SLC)…)
• (Z) Link item (task, appointment, notes)
• (Z) Add sender(s) to contacts
• (P) Create folders; Move items to folders
• (P) Search for items (find specific old mail)
• (C) Show tree of folders
• (C) Move to trash
• (P) Create/Apply filters
• (C) Sort items by property (time, sender, receiver...)
• (E) Import/Export emails

Configuration

• (C) Create/Modify signature
• (Z) Provide alternate views (compact list, ...)
• tbd.

Usability

• (C) Make reading/writing efficient (minimize actions/clicks to start a function)
• (C) Provide adequate feedback
• (C) Check user input and let user confirm when necessary
• (C) Provide support (tooltips on demand)
• (C) Implement controls according system standard and organize workflow conform to user expectations
• (P) Provide individualization features
• (E) Let users control the processing (speed, direction, etc.)

User Experience

• (?) Use standard themes Thomas: If you mean that the UI adapts to the general theme used by the system than yes, absolutely, but I think we get that for free
• (?) Design fancy dialogs Thomas: If by that you mean "Make the UI look different to the rest of the system" then I'm against it
• tbd.

User Actions

Common

Actions that are part of regular usage of Kmail Active (if they are available), and thus should be presented prominently in the UI

• read up on new/important emails and decide what to do with them quickly
  • reply to sender/all/list
  • forward
  • move to trash / a favorite folder
  • mark as important/unread
• write new emails from scratch
  • select to/cc/bcc
  • spellcheck (instant)
• switch accounts
• open favorite folder

Uncommon

Actions which are not performed every day, but more often than rarely. Should be accessible when needed, but may take a few steps to execute

• find specific old mail to look up some information
  • browse the folder hierarchy
  • Add a folder to favorite folders
• manage email
  • move to any folder
  • tag (SLC)

During email creation:

• send as urgent
• request disposition notification
• attach file
• switch signature insertion on/off
• encrypt/sign (only if PGP/SMIME is configured)

Rare

Actions that are performed only occasionally or only once at initial setup. Can be in separate UIs

• setup / configure
  • account(s)
  • encryption
  • signature
  • spellchecker

• create / manage filters
• import / export mail

SLC

Action that can be performed via SLC and thus do not need to be part of the main UI

• PIM interaction
  • add to address book
  • create event from mail
  • create task from mail
  • connect to Activity
• print mail ??
• tag