Gmail Unsubscribe Modal Feature Concept

by Max Burnside

If an email startup showed a “Report spam or unsubscribe?” modal after users clicked “Report spam”, I'd presume it was gauging interest and/or educating users on the difference between the actions.
 But, Gmail collects enough data to be able to predict users’ moods on a random day in 2035. So, when I clicked “Report spam” for the thousandth time today, and saw the same modal that’s seemingly been in Gmail since I started using the service in 2005, I decided to mock up a better solution. First, before the modal is even shown, there should be a persistent “Unsubscribe” action. Across roughly a dozen Gmail accounts, I'll see “Unsubscribe” occasionally appear inline with the inbox email or in a suggestion banner at the top of the page. Neither of these options are consistent enough. Side thought: how often are users reporting spam vs unsubscribing in Gmail? Given one action is persistent, I’m inclined to believe it’s reporting spam. Then again, once users select that option, a modal that appears provides a different primary action altogether (unsubscribe), so I'm not sure. In my solution, clicking “Unsubscribe” would open a dedicated Unsubscribe modal (I know, revolutionary 😄). If users click “Report spam” and there's genuine need to educate users as this persistent “Unsubscribe” action is being rolled out, the secondary action would still accommodate this need. However, users would also be able to tell Gmail they wish for it to remember their selection, and ideally no longer show actions they don’t wish to take. In mocking up these solutions, I also refined font-size, properly nested border-radii, made spacing consistent, and cleaned up the copy.