Conversations
GNOME 3.x aims to focus on tasks, but when it comes to talking with other people, one have to know if he want to discuss through mails or IM. This is a problem.
The solution I propose is to have a single application that target every conversations, whenever it is mails, IM, group-chats, &c. Ideally, we should add GNOME Chat functions (other protocols compatibility through GOA, audio/video chats…) to GNOME Mail (or vice-versa). Thus, the name of the application would not encompass the talking activity so we'd rename it. I propose “GNOME Conversations”.
Comments
I'm not sure this is the solution to address this problem, so if you've got better, ideas & comments are welcome.
I like this idea, and I think one example of good integration is Gmail. Gmail has chat and email in the same place because they are similar and also related, but the distinction between the two is also very clear (you wouldn't write an email thinking it was a chat).
AlexandreUltré -- That's right. Just playing around with this, there are 3 situations were this distinction can be used: 1. when starting a new conversation, 2. when answering one and 3. in the archives. There are two ways for solving this, depending on what we prefer. If we prefer to have one protocol by conversation (easier for our non-using-GNOME contacts to follow the flow), it can be chosen when pressing the “new conversation” button (1) and recalled through a small icon beside the object in conversation list (2 & 3). If we prefer having cross-protocols conversations (which is better for the user himself), this can be chosen while sending a message (choosing at the end of the writing, when we don't need any more to think about what we'll write, seems better to me) (1 & 2) and… do we really need to remember what protocol was used during a passed conversation (3) ? Perhaps when talking about those with a non-using-GNOME contact, for helping him to know where to search information.