Re: [Evolution-hackers] Marcus Bains Line in calendar

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

On Mon, 2005-04-04 at 13:58 -0400, Thouis (Ray) Jones wrote:
> On Apr 4, 2005 11:25 AM, Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com> wrote:
> > I'd prefer not to have a key for each part of the line, really. It's
> > just the gap and color difference that bug me. It stands out too much
> > from the rest of the application, which is not what we want really. 
> 
> I think having the line in the day-view limited to the current day is
> important, for people that don't know what day it is most of the time.
>  The line in the time bar I added just to make it easier to find the
> time from the line.  I don't think it's critical, but it is useful.
> 
> What if the line in the time bar were drawn in the same colors as the
> N-minute tick lines, to keep it from standing out so much, but still
> there for reference:
> 
> http://people.csail.mit.edu/people/thouis/mbnew.png
> 
> Without the time-bar line
> 
> http://people.csail.mit.edu/people/thouis/mbnew-b.png
> 
> This isn't a perfect test, as it's pretty easy to track the time from
> the line when it's Monday.  On Fridays, tracking the line's position
> back to the time bar is trickier.

Hrmm. I like the color change on the time bar side. would be nice to
make the in-view line more subtle too. It needs to stand out, but it
doesn't need to divert your attention from the rest of the view, which
is what it seems to do now, when I look at the screenshots. Granted,
the screenshots are of a small cropped area.

> > We
> > want something to show that the current time is approximately "here",
> > rather than trying to get the user to use the calendar as a clock app.
> 
> I partially disagree.  I think the primary goal is to remove the need
> for the user to refer to a clock app every time they glance at the
> calendar.  This is the purpose of the day-view line, and why it should
> be located easily.

Right. we don't want to require the user to glance at the clock every
time they want to look at something in the calendar.

> Adding a line to the time-bar allows the user to quickly figure out
> roughly what time it is, rather than just them knowing the approximate
> number of minutes until their next event.   It's certainly secondary. 

Right. I'm not entirely opposed to having it in the time bar. My major
concern is how much it distracts the user from other things.

>   My only reason for keeping it was that I found myself tracking over
> from the Marcus Bains line to find the time, rather than looking at
> the clock, and decided to make that operation easier.
> 
> What are your thoughts on adding a time display to the line (as in
> Korganizer)?  I think it's overkill, and I expect you agree, but want
> to make sure (and get other people's opinions).

It probably is a bit overkill. It would help to distinguish the MB line
from the hourly separator lines, though. However, I can't help but think
that there is some better way to do that as well.

-- dobey