One step closer to ideal calendar usability
By Eddie. Thursday, 13. April 2006, 18:55:18
I was thinking Outlook, but clearly google is first to market on something like this:
From my early days*
As you can guess from that...I *love* the new "Quick Add" feature for the newly beta'd Google Calendar (unfortunately, there are some quirks in Opera). I just typed in the string "test tomorrow at 3" and it made the appropriate entry. (also "raquetball tomorrow at 2pm next to the gym" got entered as "raquetball next to the gym" at the correct date/time)
I think the next natural step for google then, would be to allow you to somehow get text from gmail to send to quick add (the tighter integration I spoke of above). It could be as simple as adding a "Quick Calendar Add" box like the "Quick Contacts" box. You could copy/paste to quickly create appointments from emails sent. But ideally, I'd like to highlight text, right click and "Create Appointment" from the string.
*That "raw dump" post consists of some "rough thoughts" I had written down before I started here at the Opera site.
From my early days*
Outlook Calendar and Mail- tighter integration Posted 13 Sep
Highlight a date in an email: “bob- let’s meet at 200 today to discuss the changes.” and be able to add an appointment to the calendar from that. Nobody sends appointments for things like that, and when someone who is not an exchange users sends you an email- you still might want to add it to the calendar. The appointment creation already takes a broad range of input values for dates/times- why can’t we tightly integrate that into email?
As you can guess from that...I *love* the new "Quick Add" feature for the newly beta'd Google Calendar (unfortunately, there are some quirks in Opera). I just typed in the string "test tomorrow at 3" and it made the appropriate entry. (also "raquetball tomorrow at 2pm next to the gym" got entered as "raquetball next to the gym" at the correct date/time)
I think the next natural step for google then, would be to allow you to somehow get text from gmail to send to quick add (the tighter integration I spoke of above). It could be as simple as adding a "Quick Calendar Add" box like the "Quick Contacts" box. You could copy/paste to quickly create appointments from emails sent. But ideally, I'd like to highlight text, right click and "Create Appointment" from the string.
*That "raw dump" post consists of some "rough thoughts" I had written down before I started here at the Opera site.
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 18. April 2006, 09:26
I've never seen a decent calendar software. None of them support simple things such as a course with lectures on Tuesdays 10-12 and Thursdays 9-11 weeks 7-15, and a final exam on April 27th. To me that sounds like a fairly typical thing that one would like to have in a calendar, but no calendar software seems to think so. Instead they require you to input 3 different events (2 recurring and 1 one-time), which makes the following impossible, hard and/or error-prone:
- Attach a note to the course (i.e. one that applies to all events), e.g. the lecturer's contact information or the URL of the course webpage or whatever.
- Display a list of all events associated with the course.
- Change the start and end times of all recurring events synchronously.
Not only do calendars lack basic functionality, they also have brain-dead features such as Palm's drag'n'drop-rescheduling-without-undo. When I was walking home one day I decided to check which time I had a meeting the next morning. I tried to tap the meeting event with the stylus to see the exact time, but my walking turned the tap into a short drag'n'drop which "conveniently" rescheduled the event by maybe an hour or so. Since there was no undo (and even if there was I might not have noticed the rescheduling) I had no choice but to go to work over an hour early to be on the safe side. Few things make me hate a company or a piece of software more than if it makes me lose sleep.
Eddie # 18. April 2006, 13:53
That's a follow up post by itself!
It seems that with the bevy of online calendars flaunting web2.0/AJAX-y type goodness, someone would have focused on the niche market of the student a little better.
My first thought when I think of on any calendar app is for work, the second is student. Why don't we have a student specific online calendar? I wondered about this stuff in the past- I've had long standing beefs with Outlook's calendar for several of the reasons you've mentioned- I've just never tailored it specifically to the student.
Seems like something that would sell well. We have TONs of online calendar apps hitting the streets now- a way to get some success would be to focus on the student and tailor the calendar to work in the ways you describe.
Kenneth Maage # 19. April 2006, 11:58
Arrive at events "appropriately" (on time, fashionably late, hours late, dependening on event/culture).
Budget time to finish things one needs to accomplish.
Neither of these goals really need a calendar. Days, hours, months, are only the means to an end.
Do I really care that my flight leaves Tuesday, April 25 at 4:05 pm? Pbbbth! I need to buy a gift for my neice before I get on the plane, pack my suitcase, and check-in with the airline 24 hours in advance. Anytime I'm forced to deal with that stupid, specific day/date/time, I'm only using it to do mental calculations: one hour to drive to airport-one hour check in-must leave by 2-it's noon now-have time to read email?-yes.
If calendar tools somehow helped me with my real goals and tasks, I think I'd use them more.
Eddie Lopez # 19. April 2006, 13:55
That's right. It's an activity centered approach that needs to be considered. In other words, your activity/event is "get a present for my neice" and you don't care how that happens. Like with television, an activity centered remote would have "watch DVD" and sort out what components to turn on and how to "configure" your home theater. Let me do my task, I don't want to focus on the details.
Very good point about the calendar, but we are pretty far from that. Maybe there is a better approach than the calendar, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a better way.