A couple of comments inline: On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Grant <[email protected]> wrote:
> Neal, > Desktop, laptops and (separate) keyboards are not going to away, > especially in the professional world. There are just too many tasks > that are better and quicker (time is money and money is king) done > with a large screen, and well designed physical keyboard and mouse. > For that matter, pen and paper have not, and will not go away either. > So lets accept that MLO will still have to work on all these devices. > But the origins of this discussion where that releases of MLO for new > platforms needs to be balanced with its continuing functional > development. > No disagreement from me regarding desktops, laptops, keyboard and mouse - they aren't going away anytime soon, and they are still my principal tools for heavier computing needs. I definitely think that the primary focus is the desktop version of the app - that's where I do the majority of my "housekeeping" for projects, schedules and tasks. Keyboards and mice are peripherals that we're all expert in using and it's become engrained. However, that said, it is not right to class development of tablet/slate based versions with the phone versions. Tablets, due to their screen size primarily, are perfectly capable of doing complex work with MLO that would be difficult to do on a phone. One of the primary markets for tablets is for business folks, management, and others who need to move around a lot through their work day to meetings and client sites. These people will be away from their desks for hours at a time, and need to be able to manage their calendar/task lists/projects on their primary portable device, which, more and more commonly, is becoming a tablet of some sort. A tablet in most ways is more closely aligned with a netbook than a smartphone, regardless of the OS that's being used as a platform. I'd really like to see MLO more closely aligned between desktop and tablet versions. It's logical to keep the smartphone version "dumbed down" due to the challenges of the user interface on a small screen. > > > Mark, and a few others: regarding justifying a wish for a new feature > by giving the business need it solves, it not really necessary. > People experienced with a tool deserve the respect that their > intuitive desire for a new feature, like more text formatting in Notes > is correct. When more than a few ask for the same feature, its is > pretty much confirmed that there is a need, even if not analytically > defined - and the fact that most of the world does not work with > simple text editors, but prefer and use the capability to improve the > visual attractiveness, and visual navigation and accelerated > understanding that goes with richer formatting capabilities seems to > pretty much put any doubt to rest. > > Grant, I see your point, but when the business justification - the problem being solved - is provided, then it's easier to consider options for a feature. Say that someone asks for feature X. With the context that feature X is requested to solve problem Y, the designer and developer can consider other ways that problem Y could be solved or at least partially solved if X is very complicated. Perhaps option Z would be a simplified way to accomplish most or all of what problem Y actually needed and could make it into the next release instead of the more complex X that would be 3 years out on the roadmap. It allows the ability to think around the problem space for a solution, rather than focusing on something that addresses a symptom, as well. Perhaps one feature request is for HTML formatting and another is for Rich Text formatting, for example. They're two separate requests if it's without any context. But if both requests are intended to solve a similar problem, it might be that only one need be implemented, or that one will at least be a good compromise for the short term. In part, that also addresses your next comment, as it focuses the dialog on what needs to be solved, rather than the exact implementation. > Lastly, it always amazes me when someone says they want something like > a simple calendar view, or more text formatting capabilities that > there are bunch of people who take that to mean a request for a full > featured Outlook like calendar or a Word like program (or physical > keyboard only request) and then go on to bash the idea as silly and as > far too technically complex for the MLO team to implement (and then > elsewhere also say that people should not make technical decisions for > the MLO team - which is just what they are doing). These these people > have taken the suggestion immediately to an extreme, indeed a worse > case scenario, and decrease the chances for rational dialog around > what scale of features is really needed in this case which probably > would reduce the technical complexity by 80%, while still giving 80% > of the new capability being asked for. > > But regardless, there is one point I agree with many on: we hear far > too little from the MLO team about their concrete future feature and > release plans. I know there are lists of future features they are > considering, etc. but with not dates, etc. Some of those have been on > the list for years, and what actually gets done seems fairly random to > the outside world. And no-one yet has disagreed that the MLO team > have focused on new platforms and not on improved functionality the > last 2 years or so, for better or worse... > > So that is my two cents. As always I look forward to the continued > creative replies... > > On Sep 23, 5:51 am, Neal <[email protected]> wrote: > > People are entitled to their opinions. I tried to explain it to them > here > > but I'm not going to take any guff about it or get mocked. Sorry, just > not > > going to happen. > > > > Anyway, I tried to explain this to Andrey. And to be honest, I no longer > > really care. Besides, I think Andrey will figure it out dealing with the > > IPad crowd... > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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