[SLL] light and modular webmail for children [and the elderly]?

[Phil Mocek]

On Fri, Mar 06, 2009 at 08:19:57AM -0600, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> Any suggestions for an open source webmail solution that can be
> easily stripped down, simplified, themes (friendly graphics)
> updated, so can be easily used by young children (or a real
> beginner to email)?

Note that such an interface would be useful not only to those who
are learning to use e-mail, but those who are forgetting how to do
so.  Increase the font size, maybe switch from primary colors to
pastels, and you'd have something that could be very useful to
elderly people.

When my grandmother was still using e-mail unassisted a few years
ago, family members had to periodically "fix" her computer by
closing the scores of windows that she had left open because she
never became familiar with basic GUI concepts.  Switching her to
GMail, Yahoo!  Mail, or FastMail might have alleviated some of
that trouble, but those services' interfaces are still
unnecessarily complicated for someone who simply wants to
correspond with a few friends without waiting on a piece of paper
to be carried from her home to theirs.  Her needs were minimal --
she didn't even use message subjects.  Think of a physical inbox,
a drop box for outgoing mail, and a bunch of postcards.  Bcc?
Flags?  Folders?  Forget it.

-- 
Phil Mocek