bkirsch and I sat down to review the Accounts dialog in light of the Email functionality we're adding for Preview in Alpha5.

Below is a summary of the changes we're making and a new workflow we're implementing. Please review and respond with any questions and/or comments.

• Spec is available at: http://svn.osafoundation.org/docs/trunk/docs/specs/rel0_7/Email-0.7.html

Simple simplifications of the Account Dialog

Simplify the 'Create new account...' pulldown to only list the following 3 options:

1. Incoming mail
2. Outgoing mail
3. Cosmo Sharing Service

The corresponding 'Account types' are:

1. Incoming mail
2. Outgoing mail
3. Sharing

Add in Grant's handy-dandy 'Auto-configure' tool to try and guess the following settings for Incoming and Outgoing accounts:

1. Account type: POP versus IMAP
2. Secure connection: None versus TLS versus SSL
3. Port:
4. Authentication required?

Move Secure connection to the right of the Port: field in the Incoming and Outgoing mail account forms.

Move the ability to download email from the user's Inbox to the 'Experimental' menu. For ease of implementation, email will be pulled down, starting with the oldest email.

Remove the "Use as default 'from' account" radio button and "Outgoing mail server (SMTP): pulldown from the Incoming mail account form.

Remove the 'Use as default account for sharing' radio button from the Sharing account pulldown. Instead, the 'Sharing account' pulldown in the 'Share' dialog should always display the first Sharing account as the default. (From dogfood feedback, we've found that the default 'from' account radio button has been confusing users. While this feature will certainly be useful in the future, it will require quite a bit more design work to get right and it's value in the Preview timeframe is questionable.)

Change the 'Sign up for an account' button in the Sharing account form to text with a hyperlink.

Group form fields with spacing improvements

• Incoming mail
• Between 'Account type' and 'Description'
• Between 'Full name' and 'Incoming mail server'
• Between 'Password' and 'Protocol'/'Auto-configure'
• Between 'Protocol' and 'Port'
• Between 'Port' and 'Set up special IMAP folders'

• Outgoing mail
• Between 'Account type' and 'Description'
• Between 'Server' and 'Auto-configure'
• Between 'Port' and 'User Authentication'

• Sharing
• Between 'Account type' and 'Description'
• Between 'Path' and 'User name'
• Between 'Password' and 'Port'

Align fields

• Bottom align 'Accounts' and Account type
• Bottom align 'Delete' and Last field in the form
• Bottom align 'Sign-up' text with 'Test' 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons
• Left-align 'Test' button with form fields
• Right-align 'Cancel' with form fields

Workflow steps: Adding a new Incoming mail account

1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Incoming email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out Email address, Full name, Incoming mail server, User name, and Password fields
4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button

(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)

1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Configuring account settings...
3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and Port fields are automatically configured.)

{Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)

1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter settings manually.

{If Protocol = IMAP...} ([ ] Set up special IMAP folders...' checkbox option appears)

1. User checks: 'Set up special IMAP folders...' ('Learn more' link takes you to Preview end-user documentation.)
2. User clicks 'Test...'. (Test button greys out while account is tested.)

(Display progress information:)

1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Checking xxx...

{IMAP folder creation fails...}

1. Error: Unable to add special Chandler IMAP folders to your account. ([ ] Set up sepcial IMAP folders... checkbox is automatically unchecked.)

1. User clicks 'Test...' button (Test button greys out while account is tested.)

(Progress information:)

1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Checking xxx...

{No errors.}

1. User clicks Okay.

Workflow steps: Adding a new Outgoing mail account:

1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out Email address and Outgoing mail server
4. User clicks the 'Auto-configure...' button.

(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)

1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Configuring account settings...
3. Configuration complete... (Protocol, Secure connection and Port fields are automatically configured.)

{Auto-configuration fails...} (Display error message:)

1. Error: Unable to auto-configure account. Please enter settings manually.

{Server requires Authentication...}

1. xxx requires authentication. Please enter your User name and Password above.

1. User enters User name and password.
2. User clicks Okay. (Okay button greys out while account is tested.)

(Progress information:)

1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Verifying...

{No errors.}

1. User clicks 'Okay'.

Workflow steps: Adding a new Sharing account:

1. Go to File>>Accounts...
2. Select 'Outgoing email...' from 'Create new account...' pulldown
3. Fill out fields
4. User clicks 'Test...'. (Test button greys out while account is tested.)

(Dialog expands to display progress information. bkirsch, I'm hand-waving here, please let me know what the appropriate messages are.)

1. Contacting server: xxxxx.., etc
2. Verifying account settings.

{Account test fails...} (Display error message:)

1. Error: Unable to verify account. Please check settings and try again.
2. User fixes settings.
3. User clicks 'Test...'. (Test button greys out while account is tested.)

(Progress information:)

1. Contacting server: xxx...
2. Verifying...

{No errors.}

1. User clicks 'Okay'.

---

• Preview_Accounts_In.png:
  

• Preview_Accounts_Out.png:
  

• Preview_Accounts_Sharing.png:
  

• Preview_Accounts_In_Guides.png:
  

• Preview_Accounts_Out_Guides.png:
  

• Preview_Accounts_Sharing_Gu.png:
  

-- MimiYin - 10 Jan 2007