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Nov
5
Labels in Gmail are Terribly Inefficient – A Lesson in User Interface Design
Filed Under General, Modern Web, Productivity, Web Development
For such a smart and innovative group of people, the Google developers have really managed to mangle the Label functionality available in Gmail. I was desperately hoping that the recent upgrades to the Gmail platform would usher in some improved interfaces for working with lables. Alas, I have been let down.
Let me clarify something before I get started: Labels are Gmail’s version of tags. Tags totally rock for organization and I love them dearly. They offer a lot of flexibility over hierarchical folders and are really powerful when you start applying several tags to a single item. Fortunately, many services are starting to move away from systems of organization based on hierarchical folders and towards systems based on tagging of data. Google apparently only received half the memo. It’ is so difficult in Gmail to apply more than one label that you find yourself stuck in some wierd “only-one-tag-at-a-time” universe. You are basically limited by the same restrictions as hierarchical folders, but there is a clever “Label” mask on this system to trick you into thinking you can tag like all the other cool kids. I say bollocks!
The best way to describe Gmail’s Label deficiences is through an example. I recently ordered a gift for my hot wife from Amazon. After placing the order, I received the standard order confirmation email with all the details of the purchase. Me being a tag freak, I wanted to tag the hell out of that email so that later on I could find it as needed. I decided to apply four labels (tags): Amazon, Receipt, Birthday, Nikki. So there you go: four tags. Seems simple, right?
Here is a break down of what it takes to apply these four labels to a single message in Gmail:
- Click #1 – Select the email
- Click #2 – Open the “More Actions” menu
- Click #3 – Grab the scroll bar
- Scroll #1 – Scroll to “Amazon” in the list of labels
- Click #4 – Apply the “Amazon” label to the email
- Click #5 – Open the “More Actions” menu, again
- Click #6 – Grab the scroll bar
- Scroll #2 – Scroll to “Receipt” in the list of labels
- Click #7 – Apply the “Receipt” label to the email
- Click #8 – Open the “More Actions” menu, again
- Click #9 – Grab the scroll bar
- Scroll #3 – Scroll to “Birthday” in the list of labels
- Click #10 – Apply the “Birthday” label to the email
- Click #11 – Open the “More Actions” menu, again
- Click #12 – Grab the scroll bar
- Scroll #4 – Scroll to “Nikki” in the list of labels
- Click #13 – Apply the “Nikki” label to the email
Grand Total: 13 clicks and 4 scrolls
Am I the only Gmail user that finds this ridic-a-donk-ulous? (Now, I know you can just use the scroll wheel instead of grabbing the scroll bar, however: 1) some people don’t have scroll wheels, and 2) dammit, I’m trying to make a point here). So, is there a better way? Absolutely.
A Better Way
Here is my solution for a better interface for Labels in Gmail:
First of all, rip the labels out of the “More Actions” menu, they just don’t belong there.
There is a mile of open space in the tool bar. Let’s go ahead and add a “Labels” button there. This button will give you access to an overlay with actions specific to labels:
There is a lot going on here, so let me explain: When an email is selected, all currently-applied labels will be highlighted. Clicking on additional labels will automatically apply them, and clicking on currently-applied labels will remove them. At the top of the list of labels is a text field that allows you to enter new labels. Simply type in all your new labels separated by spaces. Once you click “Apply” the new labels and other changes will be saved and applied to the selected email. Simple as pie.
Now let’s replay the above scenario with my version:
- Click #1 – Select the email
- Click #2 – Open the “Labels” menu
- Click #3 – Apply the “Amazon” label
- Click #4 – Apply the “Receipt” label
- Click #5 – Apply the “Birthday” label
- Click #6 – Apply the “Nikki” label
- Click #7 – Click “Apply”
Grand Total: 7 clicks and 0 scrolls
This new “Labels” overlay halves the number of clicks required and completely eliminates any scrolling. Much better. So, what are you thoughts? Could this be even more efficient (you could definitely eliminate one click by making the “Labels” menu open up when the mouse hovers over it)?
Google, are you listening?
Comments
15 Responses to “Labels in Gmail are Terribly Inefficient – A Lesson in User Interface Design”
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Goo,
Have you considered doing something like this in greasemonkey? Assuming you use firefox.
Smitty
I second your recommendation. I think a “Label Navigator” would also be useful. It would work by clicking a button in the toolbar. This would open an overlay listing all your labels. Then you can select the labels that apply to the email you’re looking for. Finally, click a search button. This will find all emails that have all the selected labels attached.
Sounds good. I would add that this needs to be available in the compose message form.
Totally agree!
I think the way they have it is a concession to older methods of doing things so that you can still use your normal email program. The problem there is that if you have even just one Label on a message, your IMAP client gets a duplicate one in the “All Mail” Folder that Google gives you. When I run a search that finds that message, I’ll actually find two of them. When you think about making it easy to add tags/labels, your normal mail app has to store one message pre label, plus the “All Mail”. It quickly gets out of hand organization-wise.
Ian,
I agree that this is a problem, however, I would guess that the majority of Gmail users use the web client exclusively. And for that matter, Gmail was designed as a web mail client, and IMAP support was an after thought. I guess what I am trying to say is that the Gmail developers shouldn’t sacrifice the web client user experience (their primary audience) in order to make things easier for fringe users.
To be honest, people who don’t use the web client are taking advantage of a free service. Google doesn’t make any money when IMAP user’s yank their mail out of the system without viewing contextual ads. So, I say keep the “paying” customers happy first, then worry about everyone else.
Great points though!
I found this site because this is exactly the suggestion that I would like to send to the people at Gmail. A “Label” navigator in the toolbar would make a lot of sense. I hope you and others have already sent Gmail a message regarding this, because I am about to. Thanks.
I love this idea! I found your site because I’m annoyed at constantly scrolling to find the proper label under “More Actions”.
Looking at the screen full of label names I was immediately reminded of “tag clouds”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_clouds
Borrowing from this idea, Google could weight the labels based on the content of the email you are currently labeling.
If you were talking about your trip to Japan in this email, the labels “Japan” and “Travel” could be much larger than, say, “Cooking”…
Mark, fantastic idea! I like the idea of it being smart enough to “suggest” tags based on the content of the email. Brilliant.
Mark,
I absolutely agree and I like your mock-up of a solution. Thanks for taking the time to do that. In the old days someone would have cut you a check and told you to enjoy the weekend.
Arasmus
Arasmus,
Thanks for the kind words, except my name is Aaron.
=)
I like the idea of being able to tag this way.
I think it would be better though if there was a columnar list instead of a cloud.
It would be difficult for me to quickly find the tags in the cloud due to visual flooding/clutter.
As for IMAP. Yes it’s great, but I’d actually prefer to do it all online. I only use IMAP for dragging and dropping into folders since the labeling is such a PIA.
Great article. I hope they listen.
Shawn
Hear hear! Fingers crossed for this capability. Another idea: a check box next to each label in the left sidebar. Select ten messages, press plus, and the messages are labelled. Uncheck the box(es) to drop a label from one or more messages. No need for a drop down menu if you don’t want it.
I totally agree. I’ve requested similar functionality directly to google and on Userscripts.org to see if a coding genius could write a script for greasemonkey.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for sure!!!
Great post.