Thunderbird:Autoconfiguration:UI

Goal

Be a simple, easy, and fast way for people to configure Thunderbird against their email server.

We are competing with web mail which will give you a new email address if you give them your Name, Email (desired account name), and Password. Our goal is to be that simple and only require that information from most people.

Secondary Goal

Offer a "Sport Manual" way of setting up an account with assistance by probing the host for ports and checking that a given configuration will work. This option should be available from the beginning.

The File/New/Mail Account Dialog

These are the steps that the average user would go through.

Initial View

• Pros
  • Very simple and obvious
• Cons
  • Bland and boring with a layout that feels odd

Auto-Configuring

This is after entering information.

Auto-Configured

This displays a configuration that was found and possible options between either IMAP or POP for downloading messages.

Alternate Versions

Sport Manual Configuration

If the email settings are not available and cannot be auto-detected we can default to helping people probe for the correct data.