observations as a brand new user with fresh eyes

[t4k]

I've just found this add-on and it seems to be working great, so thank you! Being someone who designs software and interfaces myself, I know that learning the perspective of someone who is using a new system for the first time is very valuable, so I am offering a couple of points that I think could improve things for new folks like me.

Environment: macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 with Thunderbird 115.9.0 and Quick Folder Move 2.8.1

• The account header (gray bar with account name on my machine) took a few repetitions and some thinking to figure out that it was just a heading and not a default selection. (I have two accounts in my Tb.) I can chalk this up to just needing to learn, no problem, though, as suggested in an issue I read here, a slight indent would make the hierarchy more readily apparent.
• It took me a while to understand that I could just press Enter/Return to move a message to the top folder in the list. I think it would be great if by default the first folder in the list was highlighted automatically in the same way it becomes highlighted when using the down and up arrows (light blue background on my machine). That would make it clear more quickly that I could just press Enter/Return to move a message immediately.
• Lastly, and I'm not sure what the mechanism in Thunderbird would be, but it would be really nice to see some status notification right after moving a message saying what just happened, like "message(s) moved to [folder name]". If it was down in the status bar or if Thunderbird has some sort of floating and disappearing notification space where it would appear for 3 seconds or so, that would give me (as a new user) confidence in what actions I just took.

Thanks again for a great add-on and fostering a community around it!

[t4k]

Follow up to the status notification item in my list. I now seen that there is a status bar notice when moving messages, but I was only able to catch it when I moved some 200 messages at once because that operation took a few seconds. Moving single messages is so quick I can't notice/read a status notification quickly enough.

[kewisch]

This is great feedback, I just wanted to say thank you for the concrete suggestions. I don't update the UI often, but I'll see if I can take this into account when making the next updates. The indent should be easy to do. Highlighting the first folder I think there are some technical hurdles that didn't make this straightforward, but certainly not impossible.

Thunderbird does have a status bar, but it isn't enabled by default. I believe the move should be shown there already. I don't have much UX to work with in WebExtensions, all I could really do is show a notification at the top the first time you do it, e.g. "Congratulations, you moved your first message". I know it is sometimes a gamble, but I'd also hope the extension "just works" and there is no need for reduced confidence :D

[micz]

I tried a few different solutions to address the first point of this issue.

Try 1: no borders for the account row, bold and underlined text.

Try 2: A little colored (with the account color?) rectangle on the left of the account icon.

Try 3: some kind of character/symbol/small icon before and after the account text.

Try 4: Indentation of the folders rows.

@kewisch @t4k what do you think?
I personally prefer the first one.

[micz]

I modified the code to implement the second point of this issue.
The new code is here: https://github.com/micz/quickmove-extension/tree/issue_167_work

In details:

I added an observer to react the first time the list is populated if nothing is selected.
Now the first element is always selected.
https://github.com/micz/quickmove-extension/blob/db6e04eafefa1acdeae571bad7ad626a79ec3f55/src/popup/baseItemList.js#L245-L255

Working on this feature, I tried to improve how the list navigation works.
So I changed the original nthItem method to add this features:

• When using the up/down arrows, the search field is always selected, so it's always possibile to change the search keywords without the need to refocus it.
• When changing the keywords, the selected row is kept selected if it's part of the new list.
• Pressing the up/down arrows moves the selection starting from the current one.
• If nothing is selected it starts as it does now (first or last element).
• When moving past the first or last element it goes to the last or first without stopping in the search field like it does now.

This is the new method:
https://github.com/micz/quickmove-extension/blob/db6e04eafefa1acdeae571bad7ad626a79ec3f55/src/popup/baseItemList.js#L308-L339

@kewisch I hope you like it! 😁

(The linked code is working, but it has not been linted and it has some commented lines that will be removed)