Re: [Evolution-hackers] evolution's editors

[Patrick <patrick drexsuite org>]

A few comments on the task editor.

Is it always necessary to label each field? The "Class: [Confidential]"
field seems less clear to me then if it was just the dropdown
[Confidential]".

I do not like the Categories tab for the same reasons I didn't in the
contact editor. Likewise I'm not entirely sure how it could be improved.
I know I never use it in Outlook at work because it feels so cumbersome.

The "Priority" field which is currently on the "Status" field seems
misplaced. I would think you would want to set the priority at creation
time.

The fields in the Status tab seem to overlap too much. You may already
have some interactive changes which only happen when you edit the fields
- its hard to tell from a screenshot - but I'll suggest them anyway.

I would hide fields that don't apply for the current status. I don't
know if it possible to have a field be invisible but taken into account
when doing the packing nonetheless. That would be nice and prevent
arbitrary resizing.

Perhaps something like this:

#1:
Status [Not started]

#2:
Status [In Progress]
	Percent completed --------------------|--------------- 70%

	[Reassign] <-- a button:
		if the task isn't going well you may want to
		reassign who is handling the task... can tasks send
		out a notice to the original person and tell them
		they can stop working on it?

#3:
Status [Cancelled]

#4:
Status [Completed]
	Date completed: [______]

I don't know if there is enough information to justify an entire tab
with just this. Perhaps the assign field should be on this tab to? ie.
whose doing it and how far are they along? and maybe the start date and
due date as well? ie. all of the resources for planning the actual task
as distinct from the details of the task?

Or perhaps it would be better to have two task editors. One for creating
the task when you do the initial specification (without the status tab)
and another for editing an existing task where you have a stronger split
between the task details and the progress of the task.

Patrick

On Wed, 2004-03-31 at 08:24, Anna M Dirks wrote:
> Greetings.
> 
> The purpose of this mail is to propose a new design for the contact,
> appointment, meeting and task editors, as used in Evolution 2.0. 
> 
> Why do these editors need to be redesigned? 
> 
> 1. They are not currently compliant with the gnome HIG. 
> 2. They were not designed from a task-based perspective.
> 3. They are not consistent with one another.
> 
> Appointment Editor and Meeting Editor
> 
> The following screenshots demonstrate my proposal for the appointment
> editor (also the meeting editor.) Note that these screenshots are
> specifically for a meeting; if one were creating an appointment, the
> notebook would not have the attendees tab. 
> 
> NB: I am obviously missing accelerators and using inappropriate icons
> in some places. I am aware of this. Please try not to concentrate on
> the icons/accelerators -- they are easily fixed. 
> 
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/meet-basics.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/meet-attendees.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/meet-reminders.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/meet-recur.png
> 
> Explanation:
> For now, please do not worry about the reminders page. I'll send a
> separate mail out later today which details the working of that page. 
> 
> On the recurrence page, the "select dates" button should pop down a
> minicalendar, a la the current "Add" button in the current exceptions
> frame. 
> 
> On the attendees page, the "Show schedules" button open the scheduling
> widget (currently the "Scheduling" tab in its own window. The
> advantage of doing this is that people who want to use that tool can
> now do it *and* also view the list of attendees in full at the same
> time. (Currently, since both pages are packed into a notebook, one can
> only see one page at a time.) Further, the "Contacts" button on this
> page should open the select names dialog. A better label for this
> button may well be needed.             
> 
> Contact Editor
> 
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/contact-basic.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/contact-personal.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/contact-mailaddy.png
> 
> Explanation:
> Yes, I know, it is a big dialog. It is much, much more task based than
> it used to be, though; most of the time when you add a new contact,
> the only (or primary) information that you care about is his or her
> email/phone/im data. This design makes adding that info simple. It
> isn't actually very much bigger than the previous contact editor was
> (in terms of total area). 
> 
> Task Editor
> 
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/task-basic.png
> http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/editors/task-status.png
> 
> Explanation: 
> Not a lot to say about this one. The "assign to" button should pop up
> the select names dialog, allowing one to pick contacts from her
> addressbook. 
> 
> Thoughts? 
> 
> Anna