[whispersystems] Would this tabbed UI for the active conversation make more sense?

[Huan Truong]

I am feeling that the current design, where the whitey-active tab is
connected with the outside of the window doesn't make much sense. I
wonder if this old-gmail style where the active tab "connects" with
the conversation part make more sense? Attached is a mockup of the
design, maybe we should change the active tab color to be white too to
emphasize the connectedness (thus, maybe we can remove the header of
the conversation part too, we know whom we are talking to that way).

I am not an UI designer, so this might not be the best idea ever. :)

[lilia]

I see what you're getting at, but the idea falls apart as your inbox list
grows longer than the window height and becomes scrollable. Then the
selected list item can be scrolled out of sight, breaking the connection to
the main panel, and without the conversation header you would not be able
to tell what thread you're looking at.

Post by Huan Truong
I am feeling that the current design, where the whitey-active tab is
connected with the outside of the window doesn't make much sense. I
wonder if this old-gmail style where the active tab "connects" with
the conversation part make more sense? Attached is a mockup of the
design, maybe we should change the active tab color to be white too to
emphasize the connectedness (thus, maybe we can remove the header of
the conversation part too, we know whom we are talking to that way).
I am not an UI designer, so this might not be the best idea ever. :)

[Huan Truong]

I have thought a bit about that.

If the list is too long and is scrolled down (/up) so that the active
conversation could potentially be scrolled out of sight, then the active
conversation sticks to the top (/bottom) and becomes "fixed", like the
navigation bars of some modern pages you see.

The scrollbar could be hidden or moved to the left when the list is too
long - so it doesn't look too awkward. I further propose to only display
the names of the inactive conversations so that they don't take as much
space.

Cheers,

Post by lilia
I see what you're getting at, but the idea falls apart as your inbox list
grows longer than the window height and becomes scrollable. Then the
selected list item can be scrolled out of sight, breaking the connection to
the main panel, and without the conversation header you would not be able
to tell what thread you're looking at.

Post by Huan Truong
I am feeling that the current design, where the whitey-active tab is
connected with the outside of the window doesn't make much sense. I
wonder if this old-gmail style where the active tab "connects" with
the conversation part make more sense? Attached is a mockup of the
design, maybe we should change the active tab color to be white too to
emphasize the connectedness (thus, maybe we can remove the header of
the conversation part too, we know whom we are talking to that way).
I am not an UI designer, so this might not be the best idea ever. :)