To attach a file on Gmail, you need to click on the “Attach a file” link, on clicking that a text box comes along with a “Browse” button. If you want to add one more file, again you need to click “Attach another file” and then you need to click again on “Browse” button to browse through the files in your machine.
To attach a file you need to do 2 clicks. So that means for 5 attachments, you need to do 10 clicks and browsing through the file 5 times. It’s obvious that the user wants to browse when he clicks on “Attach a file” link. So a “File upload” window to browse should pop up on clicking “Attach a file” link, reducing one click per attachment.It should also provide an option of multi selecting the files in a folder. These files can be shown to the user the way multiple email addresses are shown. For that the UI can be changed a little bit as shown below.
To remove a file, just delete the way you delete the email addresses. And for attaching more than one file from different folders, just clicking on browse button and select the file.
To remove a file, just delete the way you delete the email addresses. And for attaching more than one file from different folders, just clicking on browse button and select the file.
9 comments:
Multiple selection of attachments... good idea. But i think there is a technical limitation here which has to be fixed so that Google can do anything about it.
I also understand that you are using Firefox which is why you had to do extra clicks. The file attachment flow in IE is more easier than Firefox as they could use a "windows" component to avoid the html file field (the text box and browse button u said) which is not possible on Firefox. But even then i would say its far better and fast than any other web email applications (never compare a desktop application with a web application).
A good designer should always understand the technicalities involved in the development of his product(he need not code/make a car's engine, but should be knowing the technology part well) so to understand the possibilities of achieving something. A designer always works in a frameset; he has technical limitations. The challenge is to come up with the best which can be done within that frameset. Thats the main difference between a designer and an artist. designer has to always work towards achieving something with the given framework, but an artist has no boundaries. A designer designs a car/application/apparel/building but an artist expresses his thoughts through his work :-)
Also one more point is not to think of absurd use cases for adding new features. A new feature is just one more thing for the user to figure out. Only add it if the absence of that makes the product unusable.
Your use case was if the user had 5 things to attach in his mail. I would probably give the user a tip to zip them up and make it just one file and then attach it once to make his life more easier. ;-)
Thanks for telling me about IE. I use mozilla so didn't know about it.
About the complexity, so it all about going one extra step and providing ease to user. And in case its too complex then they should make sure that user should be able to attach a file in one click atleast on few standard browsers.
As far as use case is concerned, so its better to attach picture (especially of small size) as files rather than zipping them so that if you are sending it to 10 people each one of them can view the pictures in their mail. Otherwise they need to save the zipped folder, then unzip the folder and then only they can view the pictures. It’s much more faster and easier. Otherwise people occasionally may even land up not viewing the pictures at all.
> Thanks for telling me about IE. I use mozilla so didn't know about it.
Its important to know the technicalities before coming up with a new feature. Atleast in this case, trying it out on many browsers. Thats why i said web applications should be never compared to a resident/desktop application. Web apps are very dependent on the web client. Some time back you had a point about Gmail controlling the right click menu which was again not a Gmail issue but a client feature.
> And in case its too complex then they should make sure that user should be able to attach a file in one click atleast on few standard browsers.
:-) again if the client (browser) doesnt allow how can they do that? The way a resident application works is highly dependent on the operating system. Thats why you have softwares for Windows and Apple separately. They are made differently making use of the possibilites of the operating system.
IE is very well integrated with windows so it has more powers than any other outsider browsers.
> Otherwise they need to save the zipped folder, then unzip the folder and then only they can view the pictures.
Oh ya its a great pain to do all that :P. WinZip is a waste tool. hehe. The feature of adding unlimited number (or just 5) of pictures has to be there indeed. I didnt say its not needed. But dont you think a tip for the user there will do wonders atleast for people like me (I'm not a techie) who thinks zip/archive is a easier way for sending/sharing/storing/compressing multiple files in a group/folder?
Again I'm not a techie and so i dont think i can go in details. Guys please correct me if i'm wrong. Sowmya please shout at me if i'm wrong.
I do appreciate the way you thought of the possibility. But the way you put them in should be different. It should be more like a wish list. It should sound like "you know its not possible as of now but some day it might" :-) No hard feelings please.
I'm straining this conversation using a fine-wired mesh. Here's what comes through:
Sure, there exists a use case for multiple attachments in a mail. Sending out attachments without zipping them is useful sometimes - the receiver can decide which one(s) to look at. I know lots of people who do not open zipped files (all those senior management and security supersensitive folks). Having said that, the real point is, can we make it any easier for Gmail users to attach multiple files? My2c: would be nice to have a windows folder like multi-selection option for files, but the FF browser doesn't support it (@Umesh, thanks). So we have this workaround. I think it is a fair one. Think of it this way - If you were sending a mail with more than say 3 attachments, you would zip and send it anyways. So the number of times people would tire of the extra clicks is really small.
Residue in the mesh:
All the good designer principles - Nice, but preachy.
Winzip - when and not to use it.
p.s.:
@Upma, as you realized, cross browser compatibility is a key consideration in the design of web applications. Can you do some research around this - esp for Web 2.0(read: ajaxy) applications? I think that would make for an interesting post.
On a lighter note i just thought of sharing an old blog post of mine. Chill maadi.
Art vs Design
@Upma i have been trying to figure out the possibility of your recommendation of attaching files by multiple select (shift select) and the answer seems to be yes its possible.
As i said its not possible in conventional html but a custom flash component can be made to achieve this and can be incorporated to gmail or in that case any other web app to upload multiple files.
Javascript is used to dynamically embed flash object in the DOM
and using javascript they send calls to the flash
and that in turn shows only the file select box. And the rest is taken care of by the flash component.
And guess what it works on both IE and firefox
Congrats you win
Thanks Umesh. I must appreciate that you were trying to find a solution for it, that show your perseverance.
the long awaited MooTools upload widget thats allows queued multiple-file upload including progress bars.
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