[Design] Fwd: [Bug 4520] An alternate way to enter time in event detail view

[Mimi Yin]

I am forwarding a discussion that has been brewing in bugzilla regarding a date/time picker widget in the detail view that Davor created back in November. (See screenshot below.) Most recently there has been a bit of back and forth about how to make the widget accessible to users. I wanted to back up a bit and frame the conversation with a few questions with the goal of putting the feature in the context of usage scenarios, workflows and user needs. I think answering these questions will help us figure out: 1. Whether we need to have the widget at all; and if we do need it, 2. What functionality does it need to have; and 3. In what contexts is it most useful? Questions: 1. Why would someone want to enter date/time information in the first place? 2. What are the other ways in which users can assign date/time information? + e.g. Why would someone edit date/time information in the detail view as opposed to manipulating the event lozenge in the calendar canvas directly? 3. What are the different kinds of date/time information people will want to enter? e.g. - Date + Time range - Date + Time - Date range - Certain amount of time from Today - Certain amount of time before a certain date - Certain amount of time before/after an event - Month - Week - Day - Soon, Whenever, Unknown Does anyone have real examples of these different kinds of dates? Especially the kinds that aren't generally supported by traditional calendar clients? Examples from paper calendars? back of the envelope task lists? etc. 4. What are the different contexts people might be in when entering date/time information? e.g. + Calendar canvas looking at the week that they want to add an event to + Calendar canvas looking at a week that is far, far away from the week they want to add an event to + Looking at an event on the calendar canvas that needs to be moved to 10 weeks from this week + Looking at an event on the calendar canvas that needs to be moved to a different day in the same week + Adding a tickler to a task in the Dashboard, table view etc... 5. What are some other date/time related widgets that might be useful to have in the detail view? e.g. a button that will "Show you this event on the calendar". Thanks, Mimi :o)   Begin forwarded message: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: June 27, 2006 9:49:27 PM PDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Bug 4520] An alternate way to enter time in event detail view http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4520 ------- Comment #9 from [EMAIL PROTECTED]  2006-06-27 21:49 PST ------- (In reply to comment #8) The key here is that for people who prefer to type they can just ignore the clock (and/or calendar) widget popping up and just type. Others can use the mouse to select the value from the GUI control with the mouse. But if the user clicked in the text field, he is already planning to type, so why do you think he will want to switch to mouse selection at that point that the calendar/clock should automatically show? It's fine to have the option, but there should be some visual indication that it is more than just a plain text widget. I think in web interfaces that I've seen there is usually a down arrow, like on a drop-down box. --  Configure bugmail: http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are the assignee for the bug, or are watching the assignee.

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