Nobody learns if nothing is brok3n

Sounds like an excellent idea. I have always liked Adium but thought that it was way too configurable.

On the contact list front, there are quite a few people out there that are only casual IM users. Having a complicated buddy manager like that in the mockup might be too intimidating. A more scalable option might be a filterable vertical buddy list.

1. Your contacts list idea seems pretty much like what they have implemented in Gmail/Gtalk. I always thought that you should just store the remainder of the info in Address Book, after all, it is there and is designed to store this type of info.

2. The desire to get down to core functionality is an understandable desire, but I think a bit misguided or perhaps retro-grouchy? I always thought of ways to communicate with people as a continuum of intrusiveness and immediacy. Post being neither, e-mail being a bit more of both, IM being even more, voice/phone next, and then videoconferencing as being the most intrusive and the most immediate. IM clients have been expanding into voice and video slowly, because they all share that level of immediacy, and generally it makes sense from an interface perspective to have them grouped (i.e. I am going to interrupt your work flow).

So the decision tree looks like this: Who do I need to talk to? How should I communicate with them? Are they available and if not, will my message to them gracefully degrade through these levels?

Let us say I need to talk to my girlfriend. I would check my contact list, and I see that she is there but away. So video and voice are out. I send a message via IM to her in case she is there, but since it she is away, I end up e-mailing her.

So limiting yourself to just IM is fine, but in the end it is somewhat irritating to have to check through 5 apps just to find the person. That is why people want iChat video/voice functionality, because it means I have to first run iChat (even though I prefer Adium because other friends have that), then I might run Skype, then I might run Adium, then I might have to go onto Mail. As it is, it is a miracle I communicate with anyone.

I know I have written a lot, but I don't think I am the only one that does this.

Ah I understand what you are trying to do with the mockup now. The reason I had difficulty is you have not posted the screen shot for the chat window.

http://brok3n.org/rawr/Old/MessagePane.png

Thanks Alex, fixed.

Yeah, I'm still curious to see what Adium Lite would look like.

I totally agree. Adium is an awesome IM client, but I feel like it's started to concentrate on things that aren't so important over things that are.

For example, the ongoing 'msn group chat bug' that has been around for years total breaks the basic MSN group chat feature. You can configure pretty much everything in adium, yet having a standard msn group conversation is troublesome.

I like your ideas.

The whole buddy list thing is pretty interesting. I think its useful when the list is relatively small or if there's a group of people you want instant presence info for. Beyond that, it's just a nightmare to manage.

At work with Sametime 7.5 I have a few hundred contacts in my list, the most commonly contacted 25ish people visible. I get to everyone else through the autocomplete/search box available at the top of the panel.

I've wondered for a while about a buddy pane which contracts to just a text entry box which works in a similar way to let you IM someone by typing part of their name - a-la Spotlight. Just a thought.

This analogy falls apart on the point of having no or few preferences, but what you have mocked up is very much like Colloquy's interface. In colloquy, you can have tabs on the left side of a few select irc channels always open on launch and access to a larger number of favorite channels via a drop-down list.

Colloquy actually has a buddy list accessible via Cmd-3, but it's rarely used afaik.

Sorry - not such a big fan of the new interface ideas. The good thing about the current buddy list is that it is less intrusive to the Desktop. Just like Growl it lets you know of what is happening in a very subtile way. A buddy list gives you an overview without having to play around with an application. On the other hand I agree that with 50+ contacts it does get messy. Not sure what to suggest ...but the new designs remind on an even older UI concept - of IRC clients.

Chris, you already know my opinion on this matter as we've had a few discussions about this online. Although I don't quite agree about having no preferences, I just don't know how well that would fly with users unless certain things are easily accessible in the UI or through menu's (i.e tab behavior)

It is an interesting idea and I would certainly try it out, but I don't know whether I would stick with it in the long run. I'd have to see how it works out for me in the long run, but in theory, I should be happy with it.

A great idea that I'd love to see be made a reality. I'm a great believer in finding a solid foundation and building on that.

I don't have many contacts on Adium, but having a few windows float around for contacts, preferences and chat is just clutter.

Some vague, probably useless advice: simple is great, but getting there may be very complex.

I'm actually kind of sad that you think that this wouldn't work and therefore should be reserved for an "Adium Lite." I've always hated contact lists, and an Adium with far less preferences (none is almost defeatism imo--relegating it to "lite"-ness) and that UI would be spectacular.

Right now, Adium doesn't stand out very well compared to other free options (Proteus is similar enough for most not to care) and the new iChat is coming out. A superior interface is something that would make Adium stand out among IM clients.

Do it. Please.

Funny, it was the sheer sexiness of the Buddy List that made me go for Adium in the first place. I haven't checked recently but back then when I switched, Adium was the only IM that would allow you to have your list behind all windows (so from 10.4 on, you could access it by hitting F11 or mousing into corner), have it be transparent *and* use Zapfino for the buddy names. I usually have no (other) Adium window open. This new idea would make it more difficult to switch to Adium (now, thanks to Fitts' Law and Exposé, I can throw my mouse pointer into a corner and consequently click on the buddy list) and initiate a chat (double click on buddy vs. cmd-N for new window, then opening the bookmark pop-up, then pick your buddy from the pop-up menu).

Alright, I probably don't qualify as 'heavy user' (only ~100 contacts), so I guess I'd also be happy if you spin off the buddy list feature into a separate plug-in.

When I started to read this article, I really thought it was going to have some good ideas in it. It didn't, though. The IM client is established, and I think people want it the way it is. You would really piss a lot of people off if you decided to go change the way of things like this. The one thing I agree with you on is that the interface could be tweaked (like message windows) because it's getting a little trite. Those black transparent boxes used as iphoto prefs and for pixelmator might be nice. also, i hate myself.