[guardian-dev] Improving the UI/UX of ChatSecure

[Natanael]

On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 4:46 PM, William Gray <wgray at zetetic.net> wrote:
> Hi Liron, Nathan,
>
> I love this kind of design work, though I'm still fairly new to it, so it's
> really interesting to see you guys hash some of it out here on the list. For
> instance, Nathan's discussion below about the different between texting and
> chat, and how to handle that.
>
> Nathan I think you're dead on about dropping status altogether (e.g. you are
> "online" when you are using the app). Seems to me like that paradigm of
> as-fast-as-you-want-to-go makes the difference between text and chat
> orientation for an app smaller. Both parties can chat in real-time, or they
> can respond to messages later, and come back later for missed messages. And
> people already use Messages and WhatsApp like that I imagine, as both text
> and chat.
>
> Messages for OS X is an interesting little duck in that it supports status
> and is basically an all-around IM client like Adium, and yet I get to ignore
> status in that app completely when it comes to "iMessages" (which is what I
> use it for mostly), and I usually don't even have it running. I get an OS X
> notification when say my girlfriend messages me, I click it and the app
> pulls up, we chat a bit, then I quit the app when I'm done. I get some
> messages while I'm away, they're not missed, they're stored as notifications
> just like on iOS. I think these newer hybrid chat/text apps excel by keeping
> an always-on perspective with good support for missed messages and
> notifications.
>
> Anyway, I'd really love to sit in on y'all's next design hangout if you end
> up having one, but only to be a fly-on-the-wall. I think it'd be really
> personally valuable to me to see how some of the sausage is getting made and
> how you guys work around obstacles towards your goals. And ChatSecure is
> really keen, so I'd love to get a sneak-peek at what's in the works :) No
> worries if not!
>
> Cheers,
> Billy

I don't like dropping status, at all. It should absolutely be
optional, and could even be off by default, but I personally find it
useful.

The lack of status has just lead to me not sending all the messages I
wanted to send or ask all the questions I wanted to ask, because I
have no idea when the person in question will see it, and if he just
get a notification once he might temporarily dismiss it, and then
forget about it. And once he sees it again the next time, enough time
has passed for it to basically have "expired" (some questions only
makes sense to respond to right away OR not at all, for example,
because they're useless if I don't get the answer while I need it).
The other option to sending the question to those who are online is to
send it to *everybody*, but I'd hate spamming everybody I know with
messages all the time that way.

I want to be able to make sure I get their attention when I know they
can give me their attention, and I want them to be sure that I'm
online myself and that their reply still is relevant.