The inbox: every message in one focused place, and a way to deal with it

The inbox is where everything your widget collects arrives: bug reports, ideas, questions, reviews and the answers to your own questions. You open it, read what came in, decide what to do with each message, and answer the people who left an address. It's the headquarters of the widget.

The inbox is included on the free plan.

Why I built it

Two Cents doesn't push each message into your mailbox. I wanted a separate place with one job, so that when I work on a project I see what visitors told me about it, and nothing else. An email inbox is full of invoices and newsletters. A feedback inbox holds people telling me what they think of my work, and I want to read that with my full attention.

Notifications can still tell you something arrived. The inbox is where you deal with it.

A pile you can work through

The inbox looks like a mailbox: the list on the left, the open message beside it. It opens on what hasn't been decided yet. Next to it are Planned, Resolved, All and Archived, each with a count.

I use the statuses like this:

• A message that just arrived waits in the inbox, undecided.
• If I'm going to do something about it, I mark it Planned. Later I can filter on Planned and find everything I've promised myself.
• Once it's done, I mark it Resolved, so I can see what I've finished.
• If it needs nothing, I close it or archive it.

Each decision is one click or one key, and the inbox moves straight on to the next message. Undo is there if you slip. With a mouse, the buttons are on the row, so you can file a message without opening it. You can also select several rows and decide them together.

A private note on each message

Each message has a line only you see: what you found out, a link to the fix, who you forwarded it to. The note shows under the message in the list, it's searchable, and it comes out in the export.

Answering the visitor

Many visitors leave an email address. I answer every one of those messages, even when it's just to say thank you. For a visitor that matters: they spent 10 to 15 seconds typing a comment and adding an address, and a reply shows them that someone read it.

Reply opens your own mail program with the subject and the quoted message already filled in, so you write from the mailbox you already use. When you come back to the inbox, it asks "Sent it?", and one click marks the message as replied. Replied messages carry a marker.

The "Waiting for a reply" filter then lists everyone who left an address and hasn't heard from you yet. That's the list I open when I want to know whether anyone has been forgotten.

An example: a glitch on cyclingkits.cc

cyclingkits.cc is my directory of cycling clothing brands, and feedback still arrives regularly. A visitor tells me a brand is missing, or that something looked wrong on their screen.

I read the message and answer the visitor to say thank you. One of them wrote back and told me about a project of their own, also about cycling. Then I fixed the problem, marked the message Resolved, and sent a second email to say it was done, and to ask them to tell me if it still happened. It was a short exchange, but it gave me a connection with someone, and it began with a message typed into a small box on a page.

Find a message again

Filters narrow the inbox by type, by one of your questions, and by project when you look at several. Each choice shows its count. Search covers the message, your notes, the sender's name and email, and the page address.

Every filter is part of the page address. You can bookmark a view, or send it to someone, and the Back button works.

Every project in one list

Each project has its own inbox. Open the all-projects view and every project's messages arrive in one list, with a menu to narrow it to one project. The menus combine, so you can look at one project's bugs, or everything written in an iOS app across all of them.

The sidebar lists every project with its unread count, one click from any page.

A website, an app, or both

A project that collects from a website and from a mobile app keeps one inbox for both. A Source menu sits beside Type, with a count for the website, the iOS app and the Android app. A message from the website shows its page. A message from an app shows the platform, the app version and build, the system and the device. A project with one source never sees the menu.

It updates itself

When a message arrives while the inbox is open, it appears at the top within about a second, with a highlight for a few seconds. In a background tab, the title counts new arrivals. Anywhere else in the dashboard, a quiet notice names the project it came from.

For people who work from the keyboard

Keyboard shortcuts cover the work: J and K move through the list, E marks a message done, P plans it, C closes it, R starts a reply, N adds a note, and ? lists the rest. Ctrl K (⌘ K on a Mac) opens a palette where you type a project, a view or an action, or words to search every message for.

On a phone, the inbox shows the list or the open message, one at a time, with filters in a sheet and an action bar within reach of your thumb.

Ratings, and testimonials you choose

When a question asks for one to five stars, the rating shows with the message. Narrow the inbox to that question and its average score stands above the list, with how many people rated and how many gave each star. It's my way of reading how a feature is received, whether or not any of it ever appears on my site.

When a visitor also ticked the box to allow it, their answer carries a Use as testimonial switch under the message. I decide, answer by answer, which ones go on my site. An answer whose author didn't tick the box can't be shown: only the visitor can give that yes. A chosen answer carries a small quote mark in the list, and taking the choice back removes it from the site within a minute. Showing the testimonials is the job of the testimonial widget.

What comes with each message

Each message arrives with its page address, the browser, the screen size and the language, and with the screenshot and console errors when the visitor sent a bug report. What your site passes about a signed-in visitor, when you've set that up, sits in a panel beside the message. The feedback widget page says what the widget captures.

Export

The export gives you CSV or JSON of whatever you're looking at: the view, the filters and the search, for one project or all of them. Cells that would run as a formula in a spreadsheet are neutralised. If you leave, the account page offers every message from every project in one download.

Where to start

Add the script tag, open your dashboard, and send yourself a message from the widget to see it arrive. If you want to ask something specific, custom questions bring their answers to the same inbox.

Two Cents is free for one project and 25 messages a month, with the inbox included.