Is it me, or do others find the GMAIL admin area very clunky and not well-designed? (from a UI perspective)

The following have been issues for our staff:

- deleting messages should be easier than a "drop-down".

- all main mail functions should be separated from the rest of the navigation and clearly marked. some functionality is in one place on the page, others in dropdown and yet others strung about.

- i should be able to "delete forever" without first going to the trash can.

- the cascading folder concept for 'reply' emails is kinda cool, but clunky and after 2 or 3 emails, it's gets difficult to figure out where you are in the conversation.

- star-ing the email is helpful, but perhaps we could have more "star colors" indicating the weight of importance or whatever criteria in which you'd like to use them.

- COMPOSE, DELETE AND SENT links should all be together and well "highlighted"

- what is "all mail" and why does it show mail i have deleted?

Thanks and welcome gmail rep.

christian "sebastian"

I tend to think it is awesome and not notice the bad stuff...it probably saves me close to an hour a day in email processing.

I had to read help to find the compose email link!!!!

seomontreal - i hear ya. i stared at the screen for 5 minutes before i found it.

:)

seobook - i'd be interested in knowing how gmail saves you an hour a day in email processing. please elaborate if you have a moment.

Hi Christian (aka:Sebastian),

Thanks for opening Gmail's UI up for discussion. We always welcome this type of feedback and suggestions as we work to improve this service for everyone. I will forward your comments to the decision makers on Gmail.

To comment on the last bit of your post:
what is "all mail" and why does it show mail i have deleted

Gmail's 'All Mail' link is where you can find all of your mail except the messages placed in spam and trash. When you archive a message or conversation from one view, such as your inbox, it will always remain in the 'All Mail' view until you move that message or conversation to your trash.

If one of your conversations reappears in your All Mail after you moved it to the trash, most likely this is because someone has replied to that particular message or conversation. In other words, trashed messages get moved back to your inbox if it receives a new reply.

GMR

gmail and others.

thanks for the reply gmail rep.

why would it do that? if i have deleted something, i obviously want it 'erased'. this tends to be one of the things i hate about most email and with outlook express, at least i can specify to NOT append the old message to the reply.

can i do the same in gmail? {i guess i should look myself, but if i have trouble finding compose, something tells me 'help' will last all day}

:)

it just seems that google, with all it's brain power, would have created a more simple layout ...especially with regards to the main links which i believe would be 'compose', 'delete', 'send' and 'reply'.

as an example, i have just opened a message:

- if i want to 'reply', i have to scroll to the bottom of the message - why? many times peeps want to reply to messages they have already read. at least add it to the top of the page too please.

- now, if i want to delete it, i have scroll back up the top of the message. same logic as above just reversed. i should have the ability to delete the message when i am at the end of it. {below the sponsored links, i see the dropdown that allows, but with reply and forward being text links, it's very easy to glaze over the dropdown.

- and then again, on all mail - i can see people NOT using the gmail service for fear some of their 'private' email will always be there. once it's live to the public, gmail will have newbies and all flavor of internet users. they may not understand this functionality that is very unusual.

thanks

Thanks sebastian,

I will pass all of your comments along. :)

GMR