[Design] [Sum] Preview area

[Mimi Yin]

Hi Philippe, I realized that I misinterpreted your suggestion.

Just to clarify:  In the Calendar app, the mini-cal selection  
switches between both day and week view.

I also feel pretty strongly that if the Preview Pane changes what it  
displays in tandem with the Mini-cal selection, we need to provide  
visual feedback of the "Selected date" in the Mini-cal itself.  
Otherwise I think it will be hard for users to understand the  
relationship between the two, especially because the Preview Pane  
sits above the Mini-cal, which implies that the Preview Pane controls  
the Mini-cal.

This also doesn't address the issue that while the Preview Pane  
behavior is confusing to users because it is inconsistent, all of the  
Dogfood feedback on the list has been in favor of keeping the Preview  
Pane centered on Today's events.

This says to me that we should fix the inconsistency, but keep the  
Preview Pane centered on Today's events, even when the user is  
clicking around in the Mini-cal.

The root of the inconsistency is that in the Calendar App, the Mini- 
cal is used to "constrain your view". Whereas in the other Apps  
areas, the Mini-cal is used to control the Preview Pane.

I added a 4th alternate design which is to basically unify this  
behavior across all App areas. Use the Mini-cal to constrain the data  
you see in the Summary pane (a la iPhoto). Basically as a way of  
filtering your view based on Dates. The Preview Pane remains fixated  
on Today's events. PLUS the option of using MouseOver in the MIni-cal  
to change the Preview Pane view.

http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/SummaryPreviewPane

Mimi


On Apr 14, 2006, at 3:28 PM, Mimi Yin wrote:

> Yes, I agree the way the mini-cal interacts with the summary pane  
> is another big source of inconsistency. Is that something that's  
> hard to do? Constrain the results you see in the summary table  
> based on what's selected in the mini-cal?
>
> On Apr 14, 2006, at 3:20 PM, Philippe Bossut wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Mimi Yin wrote:
>>> *Proposals*
>>>
>>>    * Current design: In the Calendar app, the preview pane is  
>>> stuck showing Today's events. In the other App areas, it shows  
>>> events for whatever day is selected in the mini-cal.
>>>    * Alternate design 1: Make the Calendar app consistent with  
>>> the other App areas. Add extra visual feedback in the mini-cal so  
>>> the user can select a day within a week...when they're in the  
>>> week view, so the user can control which day of the week they  
>>> want to see in the Preview pane.
>> I think that if we display the date clearly at the top of the  
>> Preview, we do not need to visually mark the day in the minical.  
>> That way we can also have the summary work also when in the  
>> Calendar app. The whole problem we have right now is that the  
>> minical is used to select the "current day" of the summary and the  
>> "current week" of the calendar.
>>
>> So I'd choose a mash-up of Alternate design 1 and 2... :) i.e.:
>> - allow the minical to be clicked to select a date anywhere. This  
>> sets the date for the summary but doesn't add any markup in the  
>> minical. Note that it also selects the week when in Calendar mode.
>> - display the date at the top of the Preview
>>>
>>>    * Alternate design 2: In the Calendar app, we add a label:  
>>> Today's events at the top of the Preview pane.
>> Cheers,
>> - Philippe
>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>
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>