Thunderbird:UX/Painpoints and Desirables

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Compiled 2021 by Thomas Düllmann (:thomas8)

Guiding principles

  • Thunderbird has been designed to Make Email Easier
  • UX-efficiency is part of Thunderbird's brand core
  • Thunderbird excels in making repetitive routine email tasks more efficient (especially via keyboard): Receiving, composing, and sending messages, attachments, contacts, printing etc.
  • Thunderbird excels in making users' large database of messages from different accounts easier to access, manage and search
  • Different users have different needs

A selection of Thunderbird UX painpoints and desirables

Attachments

  1. After downloading/saving attachments with Thunderbird, user needs to search attachments again in OS file manager. TB knows where they are, but there's no direct/immediate link to Saved Files tab, which requires expert knowledge (Ctrl+J). Reported by thomas8 in 2017.
  2. Afasik, we still don't have a way of searching for message attachments in a folder by attachment name etc.
  3. We need more creative ways to handle attachments, e.g. auto-saving to central folder or per-sender folders, auto-detaching, mass-saving, mass-deleting etc. The current UI is incomplete and not versatile enough to support different users with different needs. Bugs and Comments by Thomas 8 on record. We have several ergonomic/ux-efficiency issues here, some of them may not be on record yet.
  4. Also ways of displaying attachments in an attachments-only view in file manager style (with preview?) inside TB (other clients like Postbox have that).

Quick Filter

  1. We have a very serious and cunning Quick Filter fail: In my address book, I have "Berna Alp <ba@example.com>". By default, any messages from her matching that email address will be displayed with the display name as defined by the *user*, not the sender. However, if Berna Alp decides to send her messages without a display name or with a different display name, i.e. just <ba@exmaple.com> or "goodgirl <ba@example.com>", searching for "Berna Alp" will FAIL although the message with that display name is right there in my inbox. Bug on record, reported by thomas8 in 2008.
  2. We should implement a Google style search for quick filter, where something like "From:Ryan Subj:UX" can succeed, maybe even with a date filter (which quick search currently lacks). Filed 21 years ago.

Message Filters

  1. This is 2021, and Thunderbird still chokes on the most simple filter tasks: Try to set up a filter for "Sender - contains any of: Ryan, Magnus, John, Paul, Peter (and 20 more)" – apart from requiring a total click feast to set that up, the "1 filter term per line" UI is a very poor representation actually brings TB to its knees for larger numbers of filter details. Whereas this could be as simple as introducing one or two more operators (contains any of / contains all of) and allowing user to add a single string (with some separator like comma or space, probably combined with quotes) with the desired search terms in a single text input. Filed by Thomas8 (2018).
  2. For filtering messages by sender/recipients, we should also implement "contains any of Mailing list: Thunderbird Council".
  3. This is 2021, and Thunderbird is unable to create simple filters which combine AND and OR searches, because we don't have UI for that (Backend works). Bug on record.

Tagging messages and contacts

  1. Message tags system needs a complete overhaul for more flexibility and on-the-fly tags like Firefox. Right now, anything beyond the 10 default tags is a nightmare, and you cannot change their shortcuts – wth??? This looks like a substantial fail for enterprises who want to organize messages based on tags. Probably no one has ever tried because it's currently useless. Comments on record, maybe a bug, too.
  2. We need a tags system for contacts, which may also be a good way of realizing the long overdue re-design of mailing lists, which are currently fundamentally broken/limited.

Address Book Search

  1. We should explore an option if the `Notes` field of contacts can be searched for retrieving them in recipient autocomplete. If I have notes for Ryan's contact, like "TB Community manager, donations, council", I should be able to type "Ryan TB donations" and get results while autocompleting. Bug by Thomas8 (2021).Also, it's about time that we at least provide a way of searching such fields in `Advanced Address Book Search`. Filed in 2002.

Composition

  1. We need to improve the workflow (especially keyboard interaction) of adding recipients with Contacts Side Bar (CSB). CSB is a very powerful tool which allows incremental searches within groups of recipients (especially when we have real tags), and it's the only UI element which allows adding multiple recipients with ease. I want to be able to search for "Thunderbird Council" and get all council members listed from my AB. Long-standing bug on record: Focus BCC field, then double-click recipients from CSB, and they stubbornly end up in To-field.

Searching messages

  1. We need to link Advanced `Search Messages` in the primary search UI. I bet most users don't even know that they can create highly powerful cross-folder quick filter searches and even hook those up in the folder list as dynamic "Saved Search" folders.Advanced search would really deserve some love (dozens of bugs on record). For starters, integrating message preview to browse results would make this by magnitudes more useful. Richard Leger presented an interesting proposal to offer Advanced search inline, like a fat quick filter. Otherwise, just adding an advanced search button somewhere around quick filter bar might do.
  2. "Saved Search" as a dynamic cross-folder quick search must be advertised better.Currently, this extremely useful feature is all but undiscoverable. The overall UX could also need some love (dozens of bugs on record).
    • [no bug yet]
  3. Global search leaves a lot to desire – a number of things to polish here. A number of bugs on record.
  4. We need to fix search fails and shortcomings. For all of our searches, we have dozens of failures and shortcomings on record, and no one is working on them. We are not getting more reports because search fails are hard to spot and cunning because as long as there are some useful results, you may never notice that other results are missing and false positives are included. Two meta bugs with dozens of satellites on record.

Customization

  1. We need to restore toolbar customization for message header toolbar. Dozens of duplicates on the bug. Also sounds important for enterprise – to remove buttons they don't use, and to add extra buttons they need. Bug on record.

Calendar and Tasks

  1. Calendar and Tasks still need a lot of love. (tbd)
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