How an Icon Ruined my Life
Mailbox’s release waiting list.
I am a big fan of inbox zero. It started for me back when Mailbox was released for iPhone, way before going over to Dropbox’s hands. I remember being on their release waiting list and got the app as soon as I could. Since then, the way I use my email changed forever.
Fast-forward 4 years, Mailbox died. Or was put to death by Dropbox. In any case, the effect stayed within and since then I have been on an everlasting quest to find the perfect inbox zero mail client.
That plight has (somewhat) been answered to me by Outlook for iOS. I know, I know… an MS product on iOS doesn’t sound quite like ‘When Harry met Sally’, but honestly it feels that way. On top of giving me an inbox zero friendly UI, gestures and all, it integrates with my calendar. In full millennial force, it is truly 🔥💯.
Sadly enough, the same can’t be said for my Mac. I haven’t found an app that allows me the same level of control over my email, or one that offers a clean UI for that matter. As such I’ve stuck around with Apple Mail. To those of you who don’t know me enough, I would consider myself an Apple fanboy with serious duality issues. I love Apple hardware (for the most part [I am looking at you Mac Pro]), but I don’t share the same passion for their software design.
In any case, trying to mimic my inbox zero discipline, I have been using the ‘Archive’ function within Mail to get emails out of my inbox. Unfortunately for me, on a sad, sad and very busy day last week, I accidentally pressed the wrong button to clean my inbox.
Notice the slight differences between winning and loosing.
Yes, so to recap I did the following:
1. I selected a bunch of emails. Some 103 to be exact.
2. I marked all of those emails as Junk, instead of safely archiving them.
This caused a terrible chain reaction of doom of which I am just bouncing from. It took me about a week to realize that I had done this, but the result was pretty catastrophic. I missed too many meeting invitations to count, I missed important email, many requests went unnoticed and worst of all, I missed an address request from some people that were trying to attend an event I was hosting after I PERSONALLY INVITED THEM! Terrible… just terrible.
So I’d like to request someone to build a better Mail client for Mac. Also, I’d like to ask Apple to please redesign their icons to make them more distinguishable, or at least separate them in a more obvious way. I realize that the mistake was mine, but here’s a thought: I am a UX designer, my entire life is design and usability (well, my professional life…) and I made this very honest (slightly stupid) mistake. I imagine that it is possible that more people might have experienced this in the past.
I hate you so very much, icon.
In the end I have to come to terms with my idiocy. I have to continue contacting people and humiliating myself with the dumbest excuse I’ve ever had to give for missing their messages, invitations and requests. To all of you who were wronged by the icon that ruined my life, I deeply apologize.