Nuances of Conversation Pane for Beta

[ninavizz]

Scenarios/Instances

Message failed to send

• How to display inline resend/fail?

Message is too long (DDoS?) and shd be broken with "See Full Message" link

• Ref SD-229 discussion

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Messaging Newness Indication

It is not known yet if this is or will be a verifiable "problem" for users, so this Issue is to explore design opportunities that may or may not be presented to users for feedback on.

1. I am a journalist, actively using the Qubes Workstation. Do I want or will I need to be notified that new stuff has arrived whilst I'm in the middle of a session?

2. When I sign into a new session, is it helpful to see any notification-ish things, markers, or other UI thingbobs, telling me what just came in, what I hadn't yet read, and/or what I have read?

Chinrubbing to date has considered how Slack, GMail, Signal, and Discourse all work. Nina created this recording of how Slack's notifications work across a variety of scenarios, for reference. Interactive triggers, how scrolling is considered, and timed toast message ephemerality should all be captured. My cursor is included in the video: Look for the cursor, kids!.

Scenarios To Consider

• I am a journalist user looking over messages and files from Drained Raccoon. The SD Client auto-fetches new stuff from the server, and a new message from Benign Artichoke comes in. How shall I be notified of this, or should I be notified of this outside Benign Artichoke's slot in the Source List becoming bolded as now un-read (assuming it had previously been read)?
• I am a journalist user reading a message from Benign Artichoke. The SD Client auto-fetches new stuff from the server, and a new message from Benign Artichoke comes in. How shall I be notified of this, or should I be notified of this at all?
  • Should the Messages pane for Benign Artichoke auto-scroll up to reveal the new message with a subtle red-line/label differentiating the old from the new, as a visual marker (Slack's pattern)?
  • The SD Client likely having a rate of reciprocation in correspondence more akin to email than Slack (new messages every few days or weeks, vs new messages every few seconds or minutes) should we seek to instead emulate the GMail pattern that shows an actual flag with "New Message" as an active embedded link—that would only then auto-scroll the window up to reveal the message?
• I am a journalist user, combing through a fascinating document sent to me by a Source, in a Disposable VM. A new message from either that same Source, or a different Source, comes in to the SecureDrop Client in the Workstation VM. Can Qubes handle that notification? Yes, a wiggling window would be a fun way to do that—but that likely being about as in-scope as shooting rainbows, how else might we approach that? Could an upper-right message be prompted?

Acceptance Criteria

• Clickable wires and/or time-based animations presented
• Good chewy discussion had
• Chins rubbed-a-plenty
• Next steps decided

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This is a sub-task within #18

[ninavizz]

@eloquence @redshiftzero @creviera ...if there are any scenarios you guys can think of that I failed to capture, above, pls to let me know! :)

[ninavizz]

Nina needs to eat lunch and drink less coffee, as she put the prior comment in the wrong issue!

[ninavizz]

@eloquence Nominating for mid-sprint addition to current Sprint (cuz that's honest!)

[ninavizz]

Hah! Closing, as all of the things flagged on this issue (including the current security repo issue for too-long messages) have been completed for Beta. Will open new ticket for convo pane maturation things.