Text Messaging Application Design

Jon openmoko at snowulf.com
Sun Oct 21 00:08:31 CEST 2007


On 10/19/07, Bryan Copeland <bcopeld at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> <RESENDING>
> At the risk of getting flamed as a newbie here, just thought I'd
> contribute my first suggestion for OpenMoko text/e-mail messaging.
>
> I've always desired a much more intuitive interface for accessing my
> messages than what is currently provided by the standard list scheme.
> Namely, I want to know which groups and which people are sending me the most
> e-mail/SMS messages, and be able to assign priorities as I often don't have
> time to answer all of my mail. Then, there is Spam & Junk Mail. Some of it I
> like to read, I have my favorites like College Humor, discount offers,
> contests and giveaways.
>
> What does everyone think of building upon the FOAF specs for a totally
> visual representation. Picture the " They Rule application<http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.php>
> "< http://www.theyrule.net/2004/tr2.php> as seen in the attachment. You
> only need to add numbers to each person designating the number of unread
> emails in your inbox. Actually, you could display any number by switching
> one setting ("View by Read", "View by Unread", or "View by Importance").
> Also, this could get people into using the "Importance settings" that so
> often get neglected in the flat lists of Microsoft Outlook and other similar
> mail apps.
>
> Anyway, that's just a thought... but again, screen size may be an issue as
> the network or I should say "Address Book" grows to an unmanageable numbers.
> But that could potentially be countered by placing people in groups (like by
> business, school, etc...)
>
> Bryan Copeland


Howdy,
I'm sorry if this sounds stupid, but I'm completely confused by what you are
trying to say.  I think what you are trying to say is that you want a
picture for an "inbox" that shows the people and the number of messages from
them?  Am I getting the general gist right here?  That sounds like a fine
idea for email, but I'm not sure how that works for text messaging.

I can't vouch for anyone else else, but I have 4 basic groups of people in
my address book:  Work, Family, Friends, Companies.  The only group I text
message with at all, is my Friends. So for me, having a "group" view
wouldn't do me much good, because all the messages are from the same group.
Also at the same time, I don't have that many text messages that I can't
read them all.  I suppose having an "importance" filter isn't a half bad
idea, for those that do get lots of text messages.

So maybe if you explain your concept a little better from your personal
usage of text messaging, and how you see this "Graphical representation"
helping you use text messages more intuitively/efficiently?  For example
your attached picture (which I might add is a bit large, maybe a PNG/JPG/GIF
next time?) shows links to Merrill Lynch and AT&T Wireless.  Do you
regularly communicate with these groups (via Text messaging)?  Maybe you
might consider throwing something together in paint/gimp/photoshop that is
based on your personal experiences?  That way you can better explain it.

-Jon

PS. I'm not trying to harsh your work here or anything, or "flame" you for
being a newbie (alot of us are newbies - heck I've only been writing on this
list for 3 days).  Everyones suggestions are good. You've suggested a
concept that I'd never even considered, I'm simply just trying to understand
your usage of it.
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