As an outsider observing the process I just thought I would suggest one thing.
I think one of the most important things you could do is hire a killer graphic designer to make Chandler look *really* slick. I dont mean change any functionality, but just using gradients perhaps some small bits of animation and/or some really slick icons. It is amazing how such a small thing can make such a big difference. Chandler looks OK, but in its present form it doesnt look slick and in today's market with the given competition it does matter. If you look at the new MS Office, not to mention Vista, it is visually incredibly polished. Hank On Dec 7, 2007 4:38 PM, Sheila Mooney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Based on Mimi's reply to this email and her email about the 1.0 bugs, I > took at stab at articulating the tenets and strategy for 1.0. Please send > additions, comments etc to the list. > > > Goals of 1.0: > > + Increase real adoption of the current product we have. > > Tenets: > > + Remove the perception that Chandler is not ready for real world day-to-day > usage by polishing and fixing bugs that impact the usability of the current > feature set. Make it look like something that's "done" so we can encourage > more people to try out Chandler. > + Improve the initial experience and usability of the product to have more > impact on users who try it out. > + Polish the dashboard and triage workflows so that we can really showcase > the power of these innovative features to users and make them truly usable > not simply plausible. > > Strategy: > > + Short release - Jan or Feb > + No new major features (except for month view) > + Make what we have now more "1.0" > + Fix the bugs and problems that people run into most often > + Focus more energy on polish > + Focus on getting people interested in continuing to explore the > application > + Expand our user base beyond the "pim-enthusiast" early adopters > > Specifics: > > + Interop issues - particularly around data import. > + Lighten-up the UI so it more accurately reflects what Chandler was > designed-for: > + Remove the New, Reply, Reply all, Forward buttons from the toolbar > + Rename 'Mail' to Messages > + Dashboard > + Fix half a dozen bugs that cause items to appear in the NOW section > incorrectly when you are sharing a dashboard. > + Simplify workflow to add an owner to an item. > + Label the sidebar workspaces and rename the task stamp to projects. > + Improved app polish by unifying many of the dialogs. > + Polish the month view it so it's usable. > > > On Dec 3, 2007, at 4:05 PM, Mimi Yin wrote: > > Thanks for starting this conversation on the list Sheila. > > My take on the goal or 'point' of 1.0 is to address 2 blockers to adoption: > > 1. Remove the 'Oh, this is just a Preview release? I don't want to beta-test > half-finished software' barrier for users who hear about us and are > interest, but reluctant to sign-up for troubleshooting. How would we know > that we had attained this goal? We're comfortable removing the Tools menu > and make it a plug-in instead. > > 2. Remove any remaining barriers that would prevent OSAF staff and current > Chandler users from recommending Chandler to non-PIM enthusiast friends, > co-workers and acquaintances. People who need better productivity tools, but > don't necessarily go looking for them on their own. > > What does this mean in terms of features and functionality? > 1. We don't have to fix all the bugs, just the bugs that people run into > early and often. > > 2. Any 'functionality' that we don't already have should probably just be > cut. Realistically, we're not going to be able to 'improve / expand' how > useful Chandler can be to people in the next 2 months, at least not without > perhaps introducing other problems. Instead, let's focus on polishing what > we already support. > > I have a next action to review the bug lists for both projects and will > report back with more specific ideas :) > > Mimi > > > On Dec 3, 2007, at 3:29 PM, Sheila Mooney wrote: > > + What are the tenets for 1.0? > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > > Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list > http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > > Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list > http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design
