On Jan 23, 2007, at 8:44 PM, Davor Cubranic wrote:
Mimi Yin wrote:
+ In the calendar area, it makes sense to display 'Today's events'
because users can see the events on the seleted mini-calendar day
in the main-calendar area. This also allows people to keep an eye
on 'Today's' events while their browsing around the calendar.
+ In the non-calendar app areas, the preview-pane is a great way
to navigate around the calendar without actually having to switch
context.
So "today's events" is really "selected day's events" when not in
Calendar, but only "today's events" when in Calendar? I can see the
benefit of doing this, but it also seems inconsistent. I actually
never knew about the functionality when not in Calendar, even
though I've used Chandler every day for the past five months or so.
(I also follow the mailing list, and although I vaguely remember
the discussion you mention, I thought the preview is stuck on today
in all app areas. I thought it was really always just "Today's
events" and that minical was mainly used for easier navigation of
the main calendar canvas.)
I believe there has been a nomination to put a similar 'label' atop
the Preview Pane in the non-calendar app areas, so that this is clear
what the preview pane is displaying. I will look into this.
+ In the All app area, the Dashboard displays Today's events as
alarms fire and start-times pass.
Sorry, where is this displayed? In the minical preview or just
floated to the top as Now?
In the NOW section.
+ Not all events will show up in the Task and Mail app areas, but
I don't expect users to be 'sitting' in those app areas. However
that is just my supposition. Do you find yourself spending long
stretches of time in those areas?
I do. I use collections as GTD contexts, more or less, and for such
usage the task list is where I am when I'm trying to decide what to
do next. (Note: not the Dashboard, but a specific collection's task
list.)
+ As for showing Today's Tasks, I wonder if a better solution
might not be to 'tickle' items into the NOW section at the
beginning of the day, rather than at a particular alarm time and/
or start time.
For the time being, I get what I need (seeing tasks in the sidebar
preview) by stamping tasks as anytime events on the day they're
due. I think the functionality that you describe is already there
if you set "anytime" tickler on a task. (Or maybe it will be, once
bug 7711 is fixed.) The way I see it, if I don't need to worry
about an event until the evening, there is no need to have it
clutter my preview area or the Now section. If I did care about it,
I would set an advance (or even anytime) alarm.
That is the way the Dashboard collection in the All app area is
intended to work. I think / hope you will find it a more compelling
place to 'sit' after alpha5.
To conclude, now that I know the full functionality of the minical
and the preview, I'm sure I'll find times when it comes in very
handy. And it looks like I should try to rely more on the Dashboard
to manage my tasks. But seeing a sea of green in my Now section
just feels more overwhelming than if I could see in the "Today's
events" just the 2-3 tasks really due today. (This may get better
when switch to 0.7a5 with its date-based autotriage.)
Yes the sea of green is pretty discouraging. Hang in there, it will
go away soon!
Thx, Davor.
Davor
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