Courtesy of my newly licensed copy of Zengobi’s Curio, I have created a rough mockup of an answering machine-like functionality idea I had a while back.
Message Center
March 26, 2004 | 3 Comments
Membranophonist's Ramblings
Interaction and interface design, technology, politics, music, and random thoughts…
March 27, 2004 at 2:06 PM
That would be slick. I want, I want!
March 27, 2004 at 3:03 PM
The problem of integrating email could maybe solved by integrating the functionality you describe in Mail (which should maybe then be renamed Message ^_^)? Maybe it would overload Mail too much? Maybe it would be seen as yet another monopolistic step from Apple?
March 27, 2004 at 4:04 PM
The e-mail/messaging intersection problem is a serious one. I’d really prefer one interface for managing incoming correspondence, but it seems to me that it would require platform-vendor level effort to make it happen. There are many great features found in third-party e-mail and IM applications, but at some point having messaging functionality spread over several apps isn’t going to make sense.
As I alluded to in the mockup link tooltip, most users don’t want to manage multiple inboxes. It’s a hassle.