Discussion

Modern work email for the new generation | define

rocketpastsix: I'd give it a try for sure.

carl_dr: “ This demo is optimized for desktop screens (1000px+).”Opportunity missed with me, not everyone browses HN on their desktop.At least have some screenshots of your app so I am motivated to check later.

jwoods19: Not only would I use this, I’d love to contribute if you have a repo.

LinkSpree: Love the social feeling of UX. I screen through 100s of emails every day and if you are interested in some pointers for potential uses I would die for on our current corporate set-up...Visual ques that are extracted from the email context -Due in 3 days >> has a timer with a 3 day countdown -Urgent- action immedaitely >> adds an urgency mark to the emailEmails that can get diarized, then brought back up automatically -Follow up when client is back form their trip >> sorts email into folder, but brings it back up when the date comesAssign emails like tasks -X action need to be done by another person but you need to provide oversight >> tag the team or person and get notified when actioned or not actionedBest of luck!

forthwall: Please I’d rather have a bad mobile view than a blocker! I know it seems bad but you can always just tell the user to zoom out, a mobile view is coming!

w10-1: > [email's] underlying experience didn’t evolve muchIn stories of architecture, this is the beaten path that becomes the walkway.> Is it worth continuing to explore this idea?It has to be worth it to you.If you open-source it, you get to articulate what's important and shift from doing to leading. That's a forcing function to state values that inspire people.For me, UI is a frustrating 1:N problem, where 1 designer(s) make trade-off's for many users. You're bound to get some early accolades, but expanding surface area scales mainly to frustrating everyone in some manner.I'd like a UI that settles per user or use-case: automatically pruning things I don't use and hoisting things I do, often adapting use-case driven patterns. (The eclipse IDE UI had workspaces suited to different activities, and Mylyn task-based UI which hide or highlighted resources in the workspace for a given task; and that task context could be shared, e.g., attached to a bug, so anyone working on the bug would see (only) the relevant files or methods.)The key question is what's different now with AI. Email or DB forms are presenting data in ways you can arbitrarily explore.But when co-working with others or AI, it's more about watching messages and command streams between users, agents, etc, with varying levels of detail. AI is more about queueing up and automating interactions with a given intent. So in this case I'd e.g., enforce a GTD workflow by making queues for simple or hard, with contingencies on approvals or work, spawning actions that reply, and some ways to correlate related streams. To scale you need completion functions, archives, task debt tracking, etc. so you're always starting with a clean slate but someone can always pick up where you left off.The thing about email is that it has mostly outlived a bazillion contenders, because the data conventions are dead simple and it has relevance built in, where each message (should) start with next steps and provide necessary context (intent and context: sound familiar?). And they're queued in your inbox, giving you instant organization (urgent X important). Combine it with markdown...

nthypes: Same here.

zephyreon: And here.

joozio: I am user of Arc(even now!) and I really love it. Feels different in a good way. I can see it's PoC, but have you touched backend even in concept?

dr_kiszonka: On Android, you need to request the desktop version, rotate the phone to landscape, and refresh; assuming you have a tall enough screen (in px).If it was like Cursor with BYOK, custom instructions, and the ability to have it automatically draft replies when I open an email, and integration with popular suites like Google and Outlook (even if via MCP or CLI) and integration with whatever else I want to integrate it with, you'd have something special.It could cater to the same type of people who love tinkering with their ide, emacs, vim, etc. I don't know if that's necessarily a market but it would be cool.

bryanhogan: I think especially for websites / web apps you'd want to start with a "mobile first" design, as is common in web design.It's almost always easier to go from lower widths to large widths than the other way around for good responsive designs. This, and 1000px being an arbitrary number, doesn't give me confidence.