UI ideas (Patreon)

So it's not secret that my inspiration for the Mastodon UI is Tweetdeck, which I have been using for Twitter since 2009. However, there are some differences which could allow me to rethink some elements.

For example, Tweetdeck uses a collapsable drawer on the left, next to the vertical navbar, for the new tweet form. However, the navbar itself has basically 2 useful buttons: new tweet and settings. The rest are shortcuts to the columns, which Tweetdeck has an unlimited number of. Mastodon however, is only going to have 2 columns, home and mentions. So no shortcuts are needed. Therefore, a whole vertical navbar just for 2 buttons seems like a waste of space. What might not be a waste of space instead, however, could be just keeping the new status form open at all times, as a column next to home and mentions.

Moreover, the new status form only needs limited vertical space. The text area for the message, character counter and publish button, as well as, in the future, buttons to add media, and an indicator if the status is a reply to something. That leaves a lot of vertical space free.

What that could be used for, for example, is a form to follow a user. Mastodon needs such a form anyway, the ability to enter a fully qualified account name (e.g. gargron@mastodon.social) to follow a remote or local user. So that approach would keep that functionality really close to the user and visible.

The other questionable area is how to "open" statuses from the columns. What should happen when you click on one? Follow Tweetdeck's example and slide to a detailed view right in the column? Or perhaps the empty space on the right could be used for a wider detail view?

Let me know what you think.