Gmail is a great example of this. Labels and conversations go against everything you have learned about email up until this point. You’re telling me an email can be in two places at once? This doesn’t make sense to a user who can’t make the switch from folders, to labels. Even though labels are a far better way of organizing content.

So how does Gmail introduce these groundbreaking and possible confusing conventions? With an email:

They don’t waste any time telling you what is different about their product. It may turn off some users, but they wouldn’t be a great customer anyway. I know plenty of people who hate the conversations feature, and don’t use Gmail because of it. At least this way everyone is clear up front.

Also notice how short the email is, but each concept has a “Learn More” link. Users that get it can move on with the application. Anyone who is confused has an opportunity to get their questions answered.

My Solution

My solution is to group the all the comment related numbers visually. They are already grouped by placement, but in this case, with the strong horizontal lines, that isn’t enough to set them apart. Also we need to show hierarchy since the main comments number (88) is the total of the other three numbers.

Though I don’t think this is perfect visually, it adds much more differentiation between the comments group and the rest of the content. Let me know what you think and get involved with the discussion here on the WordPress UI blog.

The easy way to find them.

Here’s the easy solution (only took 3-4 tries to guess!). Type “label:unread” into the search bar (without the quotes).

Simple. Back to 0.