On /briefwechsel?senderId=… (e.g. 851 letters for Walter de Gruyter), each row shows only title, date, location and counterpart — leaving the right half empty. The question is: what belongs there?
The five specs answer differently. Specs 1–4 rework the row itself. Spec 5 argues the archive-level view (top correspondents, activity, tag cloud) belongs on /persons/[id], not here — and mocks the dashboard that lives there instead.
Removed from earlier drafts: status lifecycle (will be dropped from the product) and script type (only set after OCR, unreliable).
Pack summary, tags and archive box into each row. No images, no structural change. Fastest to ship.
PDF preview on the left anchors each row. Summary (when filled) becomes the readable context line.
Compact list left, sticky preview right. Click a row → thumbnail, metadata, summary, excerpt. Browse without losing context.
Abandon the list for a 4-column grid. Thumbnail-first, family-album feel. Biggest visual change.
| Concept | Best for user who wants to… | Visual change | New backend | Effort | Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Rich Rows | Scan quickly, see summary + tags on every letter | Row height 2× current | None | Small | Right column collapses |
| 2 · Thumbnail Rows | Recognise letters visually, pick up where they left off | Thumbnail on the left | PDF thumbnail service (open issue) | Medium | Fine |
| 3 · Master-Detail | Flip through letters in a reading session | Two-column split | None mandatory | Medium | Drawer / sheet needed |
| 4 · Gallery Cards | Browse the collection as an album | Full structural change (list → grid) | PDF thumbnail service | Large | Grid reflows 4 → 2 |
| 5 · Person Dashboard | Understand a person's correspondence at a glance | New section on /persons/[id] | Aggregation endpoints (per-year, per-correspondent, per-location, per-tag) | Medium | Stacks naturally |