The Undo-Send
Close The Window, Move The Timer
A precise interaction spec, with the conn handed over:
Right now when you send a message, the user is hit with a 30 second countdown, shown right in the compose window, after which the email is sent. It's a very awkward process for the user, as you sit around and watch the counter go down, not sure if you close the compose window or what.
Instead, I want it to work like this:
I write and email, I hit send, if I have it set to ask me to verify that I want to send, it does that, and then I verify, at this point, this is where it would enter in the 30 second countdown, instead, I want the email compose window to close, I want a little message to show to the user that the message has been sent, and then, at the bottom left of the page, at the bottom of the left pane, I want there to pop up, or arrive, or fade in or whatever, the undo send button, with a 30 second timer there, maybe showing the countdown both in numbers of seconds as well as some visual indicator. The user would have those 30 seconds to hit undo send- if they did, the email compose window pops back open with the just-unsent email, just as it was when it was sent out. If the user does not undo the send, then the undo send button just goes away after the 30 seconds, in a non-flashy manner, as should all visual elements in this system be.
Can you please make it so? And if you see any places to make things better, or more FWW(C), go ahead and fold that in too. You have the conn on this.
— Shea Gunther · operator drop, 10.2006
A stated aim that shipped — undo-send in the Forest mail app: a send is HELD in the runtime for the chosen window (5/10/20/30s) with a bottom-left undo button; cancel reopens the compose exactly as it was, or the hold releases and sends.
The complaint is an awkward interaction: hit send today and a thirty-second countdown runs inside the compose window while the user sits and watches, unsure whether to close anything. The operator specifies the replacement in full — send, optionally confirm, then the compose window closes, a small sent notice shows, and an undo-send button fades into the bottom-left with a thirty-second timer shown both as numbers and as a visual indicator.
The undo path is exact: hit undo within the window and the compose window reopens with the just-unsent email exactly as it was; do nothing and the button disappears after thirty seconds, un-flashily, “as should all visual elements in this system be.” He closes with “You have the conn on this” and an invitation to fold in any extra polish. It shipped as the mail app's server-side undo-send queue.
The wider frameThe prompt that redesigned undo-send. The old flow trapped the user in a thirty-second countdown inside the compose window — sit and watch the counter, unsure whether to close anything. The operator specifies the replacement precisely: hit send, optionally confirm, then the compose window closes, a sent notice shows, and an undo-send button fades in at the bottom-left with a thirty-second timer (numeric and visual); hit undo and the compose window reopens with the email exactly as it was, or let it lapse and the button quietly disappears. He hands over the conn and invites extra polish. It shipped as the mail app's server-side undo-send queue — a held send with a real undo window.
“I want the email compose window to close … the undo send button, with a 30 second timer” — The core move: relocate the wait out of the compose window and onto a dismissable, non-blocking undo button — the user gets on with their work.
“the email compose window pops back open with the just-unsent email, just as it was when it was sent out” — The exactness requirement: undo isn't a new draft, it's the same message restored to the same state — which is why the send is held, not re-composed.
“You have the conn on this.” — The handoff: a fully specified interaction plus authority to make the plumbing calls — execute, don't check each detail back.
The prompt is written in the working vocabulary of the methodology. Here is what the shorthand means:
- FWW(C)
- “Fun, Whimsy, and Weird (and Chaos)” — the methodology's rule that play and surprise are load-bearing, not decoration.
- the conn
- Steering authority. “You have the conn” means make the engineering calls and execute without checking each one back — the operator has handed over the wheel for this stretch.