Gmail’s Search vs. Sort Approach to Email
With Gmail, Google introduced a couple of peculiar ways to deal with email. One of these is the “search vs. sort” approach to finding emails of interest or finding related emails.
Instead of going with the common approach of sorting by column which is typically done to easily find related emails (by author or by similar topic) with Gmail the way to find such related emails is to search, which takes extra steps such as more typing or more clicks. The end-result is the same but with one caveat — it takes too much time and clicks and typing to accomplish the simple task of finding related emails.
This makes me wonder about the UI design approach and its designers, as this approach feels as designed based on engineering-factors concerned about (back-end) performance vs. a design focused on “human factors”.
In any case, why not offer a solution that balances both? For example, fast filtering for related emails by adding new actions to the “Select” section, for example new “Author” and “Topic” actions, such as this:
>> Select: All, None, Read, Unread, Starred, Unstarred, Author, Topic
…where selecting an email and then clicking “Author” would result on Gmail searching and filtering and displaying only the related emails based on author, and clicking on “Topic” filters by related topic.
In any case, right now is more complicated than it needs to be…
UI designers — keep in mind human factors; it is about the user!
ceo
Interesting idea.. right now, the “select” options are related to the action the mailbox owner has taken: they’ve read or starred something. “author” is more about the metadata associated with the email itself. I imagine on the backend, these are stored differently (starred or read would be a flag that changes, whereas author is permanent). Not that that should matter to the user, unless they consciously think “Select all I items I have {action}”
Right now, those select terms filters: things are either starred or not.
I’d argue that when you have filter available, sort is less important for things like author. how often am I going to be interested in emails from the very first author listed alphabetically? So even if I shortcut the sort, I still need to scroll through a list. A filter for the specific author I want makes more sense. In that case, the UI should support an ability to add in the name of the author you want to filter on.. oh wait, it already does
I understand what you mean select is based on actions the mailbox owner has taken (or not). The author metadata is part of the emails already; the “to” field, and the topic the “subject” field. I agree that sort is less important, as long as the filter is useful and friendly, which is what I’m talking about. Yes, sure, you may have to scroll down if there are lots of emails (i.e. the set is large). The UI already supports filters, yes, but I’m arguing it is not optimal the way it is done today.
ceo
Maybe it is my peculiar tastes, but I find it much easier to work in gmail than any other mail client I have tried.
The reason I like gmail is that searching is fast and remains fast when there are many emails in my mailboxes.
If the lack of sorting in gmail is due to UI responsiveness requirements then I agree with google’s decision.
“If the lack of sorting in gmail is due to UI responsiveness requirements then I agree with google’s decision”
The current search functions in gmail are implemented as sorted trees (e.g. binary search tree, red-black tree, etc). That is why searching is fast.
Given this structure, there is no functional difference between searching and sorting. The maintains various sortings, and the search functionality exploits this ordering in order to get results quickly. Returning sorted data is the same exact operation: Traverse the tree and return the matching subbranch.
Well, yes… but you are thinking as a computer scientist vs. a human-factor person (nothing wrong with that) — yes, while functionality-wise there is no difference, usability-wise there is! As I explained, it requires MORE typing and or clicks. Remember, the right solution (for the user, which is what it is all about) it is about great software and user-interface designs, not one or the other – both!
ceo
I set up all my accounts on gmail because it syncs so easily with my new droid. But I am getting headaches trying to find important emails from certain people, or attachments. I am not a computer programmer and know nothing about branches and trees etc. What I do know is that every other email program has no problem allowing sort by column. I understand that I should be able to accomplish the same result, finding the email I am looking for, by using search or filters. But I don’t want a UI that trains me to think differently, I want a UI that works with the way I think. Point and click on the column is simpler and therefore better. Why not offer both options?