The purpose of an Inbox in an app is to store data with which a user is not yet sure what to do. I don't take issue with the role of an Inbox, but rather its typical location. Practically all implementations of an Inbox dedicate an entire view to it. This architectural decision means that a user have to venture out of their way to check it. The Inbox becomes cluttered as the number of items within it increases, causing it to feel like a junk drawer. The more cluttered this "drawer" becomes, the less a user is likely to want to check it. How does one avoid getting trapped in this vicious cycle? By placing the Inbox within the view where important data is meant to be viewed.

HEY, the email app developed by 37 Signals, accomplishes this via its "Imbox," a view for all the important and immediate emails a user receives. However, email is not the only app category where an Inbox is common. Another app category within which the Inbox is a common view is the to-do list one. However, unlike email, which at least has HEY, the to-do list app category lacks apps whose user interfaces discourage the transformation of the Inbox into a junk drawer. While this category is currently bereft of such apps, this state of affairs does not have to remain this way. The relationship that a user is likely to have with the Inbox of a to-do list app can be improved not by changing the properties of the Inbox, but by nesting it within a view that is likely to be viewed more often: the Today view.

Storing the Inbox within the Today view — a view featured in many to-do list apps, such as Things 3 (my personal favorite) — ensures that the user checks the Inbox whether they want to or not. The presence of an Inbox task cluttering the Today view implicitly prompts the user to process the task, so as to keep the Inbox from encroaching upon the Today view's real estate.

Original Date: November 25, 2022