Mail/Rules

Comparative Analysis

Our comparative analysis of email filter rule systems across various email clients reveals a diverse range of approaches, from complex dropdown menus to more intuitive text-based inputs, highlighting the ongoing challenge of balancing functionality with user-friendly design.

Apple Mail's evolution from 2020 to 2022 shows a shift towards more intuitive rule creation, introducing smart mailboxes that combine filtering with automatic organization1.

Google's implementation, while powerful, suffers from discoverability issues, requiring users to select a message before accessing the filter creation option.

Missive and eM Mail stand out with their innovative text-based rule creation, potentially simplifying the process for users.

Outlook offers a comprehensive rule system but may be overly complex for some users.

Our proposition

Our proposed email rule creation system is simplifying the process while maintaining advanced functionality.

Key features include:

1. Offering checkbox selections for rule actions
2. Automatically generating rule names based on the criteria set
3. Very intuitive UI

Settings, opening block text for editing

Option 1

Going back to the search for editing filters

Editing criteria in Settings. Since you click 'edit' next to the rule name, then the whole block appears allowing you to customize the conditions and actions.

When you save only the name and text (sum) remain.

Option 2

Going back to the search for editing filters.

Since you revise the conditions or actions you are in Search and when you save you go back to Settings (possibly checking all the rest of rules).

Step 2

Later, we will look into ways how to automatically or semi-automatically create filter rules for the user.

E.g. if the user repeatedly moved emails into a specific folder, and these emails have specific criterial in common (e.g. the recipients or the sender, or certain parts of the subject), then we can propose to always move these emails in that folder (and create a filter rule).

If you have other ideas how emails could be managed automatically, please add your ideas on the Discussion page.