Re: [Evolution-hackers] Calendars and Tasks integration

[Anna Marie Dirks <anna ximian com>]

Il lun, 2003-08-18 alle 16:21, Ettore Perazzoli ha scritto:
> On Mon, 2003-08-18 at 16:11, Anna Marie Dirks wrote:

> It's still more complicated than just a switch.  (BTW it could be
> somewhere else, it doesn't need to be in the toolbar.  It would just be
> a little "zoom" control for the task list.)

Like, specifically, where? :) Without a plan for where you want this to
go, it is hard to judge its efficacy. My main concern about going this
route is that you are adding a control to the UI which functions almost
like the navbuttons in the lower left corner, but not quite. Making this
control adequately visible (while making it clear what the interaction
between it and left nav buttons are) seems like quite a challenge to me.
For example, because the task summary disappears when one uses one's
calendar in month view, you can't put this control in that area. 

And it isn't just a zoom, is it? The summary doesn't include the preview
pane... So this control would have to change the view more than just
zooming in on the summary list -- is that correct? It would change
everything except for the left nav bar? 

> [Usage scenarios]
> > 1. I know that Tuesday is going to be an overloaded day for me, so I
> > want to check what stuff I'm supposed to do on Tuesday, including
> > appointments, meetings, and tasks. 
> 
> But you want to see all the tasks, or just the work tasks?  If you have
> lots of both, you probably want to have your task view only include the
> subset that makes sense for the calendar you are looking at.  So the
> integrated setting would make your life easier.
 
Hmm.

If I want to see everything that I have to do on Tuesday, then I imagine
that I would : 

1. Switch my calendar view to Tuesday's date
2. Select the calendars I am interested in, let's say "Evo Planning",
"Desktop Planning", "Veterinary Visits", and "Red Carpet Meetings".
3. Switch my tasks filter to "Tasks Due Today". This way I would get all
of my tasks, whether or not they correspond to the folders I am looking
at. 

This seems pretty straightforward to me...and it is more flexible than
the integrated approach, since Tasks that don't belong to the calendar
folders that I am viewing would still be accessible. (And if I need to
know everything that I'm supposed to accomplish on Tuesday, then I need
*all* my tasks due that day, no?) 

> > 3. I want to be prepared for the next Evo team meeting, so I'm trying to
> > figure out what designs I'm supposed to have prepared by that time. 
> 
> Also in this case you really want to just see the Evolution tasks, not
> all the tasks you have.  So how would you do it?

In this case, I would:

1. Switch my calendar to "week view" mode. 
2. Select my "Evolution Planning" calendar.
3. Switch my tasks' filter to be the tasks folder corresponding to my
Evo work. In this case, "Evolution Design Stuff".

> In the case where the calendar selection affects the task selection as
> well, you select "Evolution" once (assuming you have an "Evolution"
> calendar of course) and you are done.

See, so I think you've hit upon the main thing that I do not understand
about your proposal. You seem to be convinced that having a one to one
correlation between calendar folders and task folders is the way to go.
Can you explain a bit about how you arrived at this conclusion?

I guess that because we currently don't require a one-to-one mapping
between calendar folders and tasks folders, the idea seems a little
strange to me. I am imagining a scenario like the following: 

1. I am planning a wedding. I create a calendar called "Wedding
Planning" in which I schedule all of the flower-selection meetings,
cake-tasting appointments, dress fittings, etc. All of my appointments
and meetings go in this folder. 

2. There are literally thousands of tasks associated with planning a
wedding, so I make a few different related tasks folders --
"Invitations" (where I keep track of who all I've sent invites to),
"Bridesmaids" (where I keep track of getting dresses, shoes, bouquets,
etc to all of the bridesmaids) 
"Honeymoon" (where I keep track of booking hotels, finding flights,
etc.)  

In this case, it seems logical to me that I don't want a one-to-one
mapping between calendar folders and task folders, because I have so
many tasks that I need more finely grained grouping of them than I do
for the wedding prep appointments. 

Does this scenario seem unreasonable, uncommon, illogical, or otherwise
inappropriate to you? Can you see a way in your scenario (1 to 1 mapping
between calendar and tasks folders) to accommodate this kind of use?

So, anyway. 

> In the case where they are separate settings, instead, you have to
> select it twice (once with the nice large side bar, and once with the
> more awkward option menu ;-)).  So I suspect it would be more handy if
> you had it the other way.

Maybe... 

But on the flip side, if you go the integrated route and you start out
working in your inbox, then you have to do a bit more work to get the
point of being able to view your complete task list + preview pane. In
other words, it seems like that path involves an ease-of-use tradeoff
too.

What do you think? 

cheers,
Anna

-- 
Anna Marie Dirks <anna ximian com>