Please see in-line...
On Feb 7, 2007, at 10:55 AM, D John Anderson wrote:
On Feb 6, 2007, at 6:03 PM, Mimi Yin wrote:
Hi John,
I don't disagree that in the abstract, the ability to change views
is useful. My concern has to do with the fact that 'Search
results' itself is a 5th kind of view, the other 4 being: Day
View, Week View, Dashboard and Table...and that it is not
intuitive how you invoke it again once you've switched away from it.
The way views are implemented in Chandler today you can attach any
of 3 views to a collection of items. Currently we have only 3
views which internally are named: Calendar, Dashboard and Table
view. It just so happens that in Calendar view you can switch
between weeks and days, but it's still just one view not two. It's
similar to adding another column to a existing Dashboard or Table
view. You see the new column in the same view, not a different
view. Likewise opening or closing a section in a Dashboard view
doesn't change which view you are using, just what is shown in that
view.
Okay, I understand that under the hood, Day and Week view are
variations on the Calendar view. We still need to provide the user
with a way to navigate between the two, using the menus. And for
users, Day and Week will be different views just like the Dashboard
and Table are different views.
I am reluctant to have 5 view options in the View menu, so for
Preview, I'm suggesting that we shorten it to Day View, Week View
and the thing we call Dashboard under the hood, but should
probably present to the user as a Table...and display search
results in the Dashboard/Table.
So I think the proposal is to replace the current 4 items in the
menu plus the "Use sections" entry (a total of 5 menus) with only
3: one for each view Calendar, Dashboard and Table (maybe called
something different) -- a net reduction of 2 menu items. Maybe we
should leave out Table if we decide not to use it for search and it
doesn't present any advantage over the Dashboard for finding things.
I think we still need Day versus Week. So Day, Week and Dashboard.
It's also easy for us or outside contributors to add other views in
the future.
Yes, but as usual, there will be a design review for understanding
how best to incorporate new views and how views are presented to the
user. For example, do we have views with sub-views? e.g. Calendar
Month, Week, Day. What is a timeline view? Is it still a Calendar
view? or something separate?
I think we need to reframe this issue in terms of user needs
again. In concrete terms, what are the specific use cases for
being able to switch views independent of the App area? For
example, what specific task would a user be trying to accomplish
when say:
+ Viewing just their Home Task list in a Calendar view?
+ Viewing the Dashboard in the Calendar app area in a Calendar view?
+ Viewing their Home collection as a generic Table as opposed to
as a sectioned Dashboard?
Here's a use case I use all the time in other applications: Suppose
I have the office calendar and I'm looking for a meeting that I
remembered Philippe scheduled sometime, but I don't remember when.
I switch to Table view, sort by Who, scroll to Philippe in the Who
column, find my meeting. Select it. Switch back to Calendar view
and scroll to the selection.
I would take this one step further and ask why specifically, once
you'd found Philippe's event, would you want to see it in the
Calendar? One reason might be that you want to review your schedule
that day because you have a feeling that you're over-booked.
I'm also not sure why you wouldn't be able to do this Today without
the view selector.
I still think the real solution for searching for events on the
calendar is the multi-pane view where you can have both a table and a
calendar up at once. Otherwise, I don't see how a UI without explicit
view selectors is different from one with view selectors.
I can imagine lots of other useful scenarios, e.g. looking at my In
box in Calendar view to see if spam arrives late at night. But I've
learned over the years that debating the usefulness of a feature in
an email or on a whiteboard is never as useful as letting people
try it out -- which is just another argument for getting experience
with it in Preview.
I think what you're describing is more of a timeline view?
Finally, I don't think we need to worry about people criticizing
Preview because we removed 4 menu items that do the same thing as
the buttons in toolbar and replaced them with 3 items that do
something potentially useful. Especially since most casual users
will probably never notice the menu items exist.
I think something got lost in the thread. What I'm concerned about is
that the View menu items:
1. Introduce new views that are subtly different from the views you
get by switching App areas (ie. Table versus Dashboard); and
2. There's isn't an intuitive way to get back to the Search results
view, once you've switched away from it using the View selector menu
items.
If we can return search results in the Dashboard view and have Day
view, Week view and (Triage) Table view as the 3 options, then I
think we're good to go for Preview.
Mimi
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