Every email in the Inbox Garden has a dynamic icon next to the more traditional information.
The icon next to a new email will simply look like a square of grass. If you read the email, and decided not to delete it, Inbox Garden would assume that it was an email that you liked, so it would change the icon to a flower. The longer the email stayed in your inbox, the more the flower would grow.
Conversely, if you chose to ignore an email, Inbox Garden would assume that you didn't want it (e.g. it was spam) and would begin to grow a weed on it's icon. The longer you left it, the bigger the weed would get.
You could then choose to weed your garden (getting rid of individual weed emails) or sprinkle weed killer on your inbox, removing all weeds at once.
If you have several emails from one person in your email, they will always have the same colour flower, although the initial colour chosen would be randomised, so that you get a nice surprise when it blossoms or blooms.
Where a normal inbox gives you view options, such as "sort by sender" or "sort by day", Inbox Garden has the additional option to "view my garden" where all information is removed except for the floral icons, arranged into a beautiful garden.
Please note that I've resisted the temptation to call this idea "Windows Box".-- Fishrat, Oct 29 2003 Spam Summary Visualisations http://www.halfbake...ry_20VisualisationsRelated enough that I don't feel bad for the shameless past-life self promotion. [calum, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] @-->-- [+]-- Helium, Oct 29 2003 &)-->-- [+]-- madradish, Oct 29 2003 Nice :) You could also have other variants, say animals instead of flowers, in a zoo/petshop/tamagotchi world.-- benjamin, Oct 29 2003 {B} \V/ .|. .|. .|. ----- ->-- [+]
no idea what this will look like :)-- po, Oct 29 2003 A tulip?-- DrCurry, Oct 29 2003 Not sure what to think of this. I like the idea, but it doesn't fit with the way I use my inbox. I don't leave stuff in my inbox, I sort it into subfolders (sometimes automatically using Outlook rules). And I don't just leave spam there, I delete it immediately. So it wouldn't be of much use to me, or anyone else who uses their inbox as a temporary holding area.-- waugsqueke, Oct 29 2003 (((())))))) (((((((((( )))))))))))))) ((((((((((((((( )))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((( )))))))))))))))) ((((((((((((((( )))))))))))))) (((((((((((((( ))))))))))))) ((((((((((( )))))))))) (((((((( ))))))) (((((( ))))) ((( )) _+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_ +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_ _=_=_=_=_=_=_= =_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_=_ =_=_=_=_ 9 999 999 6 9 6 9 6 9 6 9 6 9-- k_sra, Oct 29 2003 bloody norah!
its a triffid!-- po, Oct 29 2003 You've got weeds!</AOL voice>-- Worldgineer, Oct 29 2003 But what if you don't delete it because it's for work, and you're putting it off?
I think your inbox should start out as a pretty lawn, and as long as you keep it orderly (less than 12 messages in it; nothing that's been there for 5 years), then it stays pretty and little flowers bloom.
But if it becomes a mess, weeds and brambles start growing; then thornbushes start blocking key messages making it hard to get to them.-- phundug, Oct 29 2003 sleep for a hundred years? yes, pleese.-- po, Oct 29 2003 pi[k-sra]so.
[phundug] Maybe you could change long-term emails into garden ornaments? My personal favourite would be a sundial.
Been thinking about a seasonal add-on, too. Your Inbox Garden in Spring, Autumn, Summer and Winter. Also, I like the idea of garden warnings. "This email contains an image which could potentially unleash frost/greenfly into your Inbox Garden. Do you trust the sender?"-- Fishrat, Oct 30 2003 That's wonderful. I love it. +-- sartep, Oct 30 2003 [UB] I agree that Inbox Garden wouldn't work for the more procedural minds amongst us. Besides which, I've always imagined you to have a weedless, perfectly manicured lawn anyway. And I imagine that [waugs] replaced his garden with a more uniform and practical tarmac covering years ago. It's just a hunch.-- Fishrat, Oct 31 2003 "With septic tank weeds, and porno doc leaves, And friends' roses making things beau." Contrived, but it sums up today's flotsum and jetsum.-- Fishrat, Oct 31 2003 please [Fishrat] may I have some more?-- seedy em, Nov 19 2003 More septic tank weeds? That's a bit weird, Em!-- Fishrat, Nov 20 2003 To provide that multi-media experience you could add the sounds of the garden. Along with the beautiful blooms would come the gentle 'cheep' of birdies and the fluttering of butterfly wings. With weeds you could add the noise of passing traffic, lawnmowers etc.-- dobtabulous, Nov 20 2003 An email from somebody you don't like (set in your preferences, of course) might sound like an annoying wasp after your lemonade...-- Fishrat, Nov 21 2003 brilliant-- Ossalisc, Jan 27 2004 This is one of the more interesting ideas I have heard in a very long time. I'd like to see this implemented. It would probably be pretty simple to do as an extension in Mozilla/Netscape. This really models the way I use my mail, too. I very often will go for days without opening some e-mails. Maybe the "weed" mails could also be used in a weak junk-mail filter, so that similar messages arrive with weeds already growing?-- ironfroggy, Jan 27 2004 Great idea. I love it! My garden/inbox would be a total jungle though, I can never be bothered to chuck out spam.-- Vardaannawen, Mar 09 2004 Ah, but that's what the weed killer is for...-- Fishrat, Mar 12 2004 Brilliant idea. Don't 4get us MacUsers : ) I keep email 4 YEARS. I'd have jungle monsters.... maybe they'd have fruit....-- zebedee, Mar 12 2004 Viruses come in the form of snakes-- spiritualized, Apr 26 2004 I like snapdragons. Can I have snapdragons?-- DesertFox, Apr 04 2006 Depends who/what you're trying to mate with, [DF]-- methinksnot, Apr 04 2006 If you organize all your mail into subfolders, it could have the icon of neatly trimmed, rigidly watered and regularly weeded grass. New messages could be uncut grass with dandelions poking there vicious heads out.-- notmarkflynn, Apr 04 2006 Pastry for such a simple, interesting, creative idea. I envision a user interface full of interesting organic OpenGL things.-- ed, Nov 22 2006 random, halfbakery