[SM16 UI] Add 'List View' for Contacts

Idea shared by kevind - 6/3/2016 at 12:44 PM

Completed

In the proposed Contacts View, you can only see 8 contacts at a time. That might work well for a tablet and look cool if everyone has a picture.

But in reality, only a small # of contacts have pictures. And on my desktop I'd like to see lots of contacts. In Gmail I can see 16+ at a time. Also, I'd like to have a checkbox in front of each contact, like Gmail, so I can select multiple contacts just like I can select multiple messages in my Inbox.

Therefore, can you keep a 'spreadsheet view' where contacts, names, phone numbers, etc. are all lined up? That makes it similar to the Inbox and easy to find who you're looking for -- just scroll through the list. It doesn't look like you can scroll with the proposed view.

And of course I will reiterate the need to add a 'group' pane on the left so that users can easily categorize contacts into groups just like in Gmail.

Thanks,
Kevin

9 Replies

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Employee Replied

7/6/2016 at 8:51 AM

Employee Post

Hey Kevin!

Thanks for your comments throughout these threads. We discussed this some and are looking at new possibilities on the mobile view; however, I believe this desktop view will remain nearly the same. That being said, you CAN multi-select on this view. That Select button will allow you to tap multiple contacts and perform actions on them. We're also still talking about scrolling vs. paging options, but they're working on a solution to fit both needs (ex: scrolling per page or an infinite scrolling option with pages).

kevind Replied

3/3/2017 at 12:35 PM

I still think that a list view for contacts should be an option.

I do like the modern interface with the pictures, but most people have not taken the time to add photos for all their contacts. Also users are used to dealing with lists (e.g. Inbox, smartphone contacts, etc.). You can see more on a screen and scroll through them faster.

Employee Replied

3/29/2017 at 12:58 PM

Employee Post

Hey Kevin,

I don't believe any changes to the Contacts layout will be made during the remaining BETA builds. As such, I'm going to move this comment out of the SmarterMail 16.x BETA category and into the standard SmarterMail thread so it's not lost when we close down the BETA threads down the road.

Thanks again for your participation!

Tim Uzzanti Replied

3/29/2017 at 1:04 PM

Employee Post

Andrea is correct. We did make the cards significantly smaller in the later BETA versions. We may reconsider adding the list views again in a minor/major version if it continues to be an area of concern.

The reason card view has been chosen is because of its ability to accommodate all screen sizes (desktop, tablet, mobile). Card views are becoming much more common. If you are familiar with Google Assistant, all based on cards. If your familiar with Cortona on Windows, you will see that they are in cards and it looks exactly the same on the Cortona for Android and iOS.

We have a lot of thought and time into SmarterMail 16.x. More than a year of effort and many rounds with Focus Groups, Alpha Tests and now Beta Testers!

Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

kevind Replied

6/14/2017 at 8:09 AM

Today I noticed that the Tasks section has Card View and Grid View. Just wondering if that could be added to Contacts section also.

And FWIW, not sure the left window pane is the proper place to select Card View and Grid View. Seems like it would be more at home in the 3-dot menu.

Tim Uzzanti Replied

6/14/2017 at 9:37 AM

Employee Post

Yes, were going to make all sections have card and grid views. We are prioritizing bugs, language files, translations and some API updates over the next few weeks. After that, we will be adding some things like this. Hope this helps.

Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com