Bad design on nested labels

[Luis Santos]

I have a "macro" label called "Fotografia" (Photography in portuguese).

And I have four sublabels nested on it.

When one of this nested sublabels has an unread message the father label gets bold.

I have to manually expand it to see which of then has the unread message...




As you can see the "Fotografia/Lightroom" label has an unread message.

After I click on the unread message the labels goes to the "no unread" state.



I would like that nested labels had the same interface design behaviour as the excellent approach used in Google Reader!

For example, in my Google Reader subscription I have a folder called Cinema. I have several feeds on it. Today, just two of them has unread items...

So, the folder is automatically expanded, and just the feeds that has unread posts are displayed...



After I read one of them (Cineclube, for instance) the unread feed disappear automatically. And the unread topics value on the folder are automatically updated.



After I read the last unread post the complete tree is unexpanded.




After I click on the item the folder disappear.

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Luis Santos

[Andy]

I have not used Google Reader so I am not accustomed to the way it works.

But the way Gmail handles its nested labels is apparently intentional.
The number next to each label is the unread count for that label
only, not the total for that label plus all its sub-labels (or
children).

You might consider submitting your suggestions to Google.  It is best
to shorten it to a concise few sentences, without pictures.

Andy

[Allan Lobeck]

this would be great

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[Luis Santos]

Allan L., thanks for the reply. This open forum is the best place, for me, to post such requests. I hope some Google fellows would be watching us.

My propose is to transform the father label in a virtual label, a folder for other labels, exactly like Reader.

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Luis Santos

2012/2/8 Allan Lobeck <allan....@gmail.com>

[Zack (Doc)]

Luis,

There are no open forums that Google reads for suggestions.  You're welcome to discuss your suggestion here, and recruit other people to submit with you, but the ONLY way to get it into Google's hands is through the Help menu's "Suggest a Feature".

As to your suggestion... Google Reader has "folders" not labels, a completely different concept.  Since a folder cannot contain any posts of it's own, it only makes sense to show a rolled-up count.  The parent labels you refer to in GMail can have their own messages, which are not part of the children, so it makes no sense to roll up the count.  You may choose not to put that label on any messages directly, or even not alone on a message, but it doesn't change the functionality.

Perhaps if you did as I do, you'd notice the same net effect.  When I use a child label, I also use the parent.  This way, the parent does indeed show the count, since it's also on the same unread message.  It increases the number of filters you need, since you can only apply one label per filter, but your number of filters is "unlimited" (Google says there's no limit, and I've certainly never hit it yet).

[Luis Santos]

Zack, thanks for your reply.

There are no open forums that Google reads for suggestions.  You're welcome to discuss your suggestion here, and recruit other people to submit with you, but the ONLY way to get it into Google's hands is through the Help menu's "Suggest a Feature".

Ok, I have done this before. I will do again.
 

As to your suggestion... Google Reader has "folders" not labels, a completely different concept.  Since a folder cannot contain any posts of it's own, it only makes sense to show a rolled-up count.  The parent labels you refer to in GMail can have their own messages, which are not part of the children, so it makes no sense to roll up the count.  You may choose not to put that label on any messages directly, or even not alone on a message, but it doesn't change the functionality.

Yes, I really understand the conecpt, and why, because of the concept, the behaviour on Gmail if differente from Reader. But sometimes we need to forget about conecpt and think about usability. Or always, to be honest.

The fact is that the nested approach (we can call labels, folders, directories, whatever) of Google Reader results in a much more pleasent user experience than GMail.
 

Perhaps if you did as I do, you'd notice the same net effect.  When I use a child label, I also use the parent.  This way, the parent does indeed show the count, since it's also on the same unread message.  It increases the number of filters you need, since you can only apply one label per filter, but your number of filters is "unlimited" (Google says there's no limit, and I've certainly never hit it yet).

Hmmm, that´s a real good idea. It will address the count problem, but I have to check to not assign no filter to label the father label alone.

But we would still need to manually expand/contracts the labels tree. With this anoyance task to nested labels is good tool just for organization, not for user interface ease.

Sorry for my not so good english

Best regards
Luis Santos

[Zack (Doc)]

Luis,

Your English is fine, and thank you for translating and posting.

I think you're missing a point.  Not everyone thinks the way GMail is doing it is wrong or broken.  I happen to like the way they do it, and think Reader is good for it's content as well.  I see nothing wrong with the two ways.

Also, you need not manually expand/contract.  Set the parent label to "Show" and the children to "Show if unread".  Then expand the parent and they'll automatically collapse when they have no new posts.

[Luis Santos]

Zack,

Your English is fine, and thank you for translating and posting.

I think you're missing a point.  Not everyone thinks the way GMail is doing it is wrong or broken.  I happen to like the way they do it, and think Reader is good for it's content as well.  I see nothing wrong with the two ways.

Of course any design approach fells more confortable to some people than others.

Also, you need not manually expand/contract.  Set the parent label to "Show" and the children to "Show if unread".  Then expand the parent and they'll automatically collapse when they have no new posts.

No. I the "Show if unread" options is only avaiable to the father label, but to a children/nested label. If this would possible it will be my nirvana... :-)

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Luis Santos

[Oscar Carmona]

I agree. Have you requested this feature yet?