[Design] Chandler 0.6 dogfood feedback so far

[Sheila Mooney]

Since we released Chandler 0.6 just over a month ago, I felt it was  
due time we sent out an update summarizing what type of feedback we  
have been receiving so far and a bit about our process for handling  
this. Since the release happened so close to the holidays, it's  
really only been over the past couple of weeks that we have been  
noticing more of this activity (particularly in bugzilla).

Currently, we are collecting 0.6 "dogfooding" feedback via a number  
of different avenues.

1) Bugzilla
2) Design and Dev lists
3) I am receiving personal emails or forwarded emails from others
4) On occasion I receive feedback verbally

Keep in mind that this feedback has been both from external  
individuals that have downloaded and run Chandler 0.6, as well as  
folks internally at OSAF that are trying to use the app or are simply  
thinking about what new features may enhance their user experience or  
even be a barrier for them to use it at all. Feedback received via  
email/verbal is being translated into bugzilla items by the design  
team. The latter of course is not a long term solution and we will  
adapt our process as the community grows.

Although we are still working out the best way to handle this,  
currently all bugs logged as a result of "dogfood" feedback are  
tagged in bugzilla with whiteboard status = [Feedback]. There is a  
link to this list at the top of the 0.7 planning page as we are  
trying to integrate triaging these items with our ongoing planning  
and design process.

http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ZeroPointSevenPlanning

You will notice that some of these are targeted for 0.7, future or  
untargeted at this point. Putting in place a good process and  
feedback loop for handling user feedback is extremely important. The  
design team has started to process these and many of them have  
already generated work items for 0.7 and/or broader discussions that  
have been occurring on the design list.

To summarize the feedback we have received so far, we have grouped  
this into 4 major categories. (Please note, this does not include  
every single item that has been logged, but most of the highlights).

+ Things that prevent me from even experimenting/playing with Chandler
	- [bug]  failure to import my calendar into Chandler (there are  
several bugs falling into this category)
	- [bug] unable to run Chandler (there are several different bugs here)
	- [bug] crash after adding an rss feed and then unable to restart

+ Things that prevent me from using Chandler day to day
	- auto-synching of shares (our assumption is that for heavy calendar  
users, manual synching is not going to work long term)
	- unable to change timezones (we are still investigating if this is  
really a problem)
	- [bug] recurring events display incorrectly (for calendars exported  
from Oracle)
	- it's hard for me to distinguish between calendar events (proposed  
solution: preferences for # hours in a day)
	- pda sync
	- invitations

+ Nice to haves and interaction annoyances

Basic interaction
	- startup is too slow

	- context menus
	- [bug] keyboard shortcuts not working correctly
	- scroll wheel support

	- [bug] resize cursor appears on calendar header even though you  
can't resize
	- [bug] you can create items in the trash

Advanced interaction
	- sidebar icon improvements
	- enhancements to date time entry
	- dragging multi-day events to change duration

Navigation
	- go-to date feature

Organizing my calendar
	- ability to reorder collections in the sidebar
	- support for search
	- event urls

Viewing my calendar
	- [bug] all-day area behavioral inconsistencies
	- preference for week start day or what days are displayed
	- improvements to display of events on multiple calendars
	- visual improvements for overlapping events
	- preview pane behavior is inconsistent and confusing in calendar view
	- improved calendar printing

Visual gestalt
	- more colors for calendars

Recurrence
	- improvements to handling of recurring event changes
	- more complex recurrence rules (m/w/f)

Calendar workflow
	- more timezone options and preference for turning timezones off and on
	- multiple alarms for calendar events

+ Feature requests outside the scope of calendaring
	- import/export of tasks
	- support for project management/planning functions
	- pim reporting engine
	- [bug] problems with column width adjustments in the table.


A couple of other interesting stats..

+ about 75% of this feedback has come from people outside osaf who  
are trying to use the app (keep in mind there is probably more  
internal feedback that has not been captured or has been logged by  
Aparna as regular bugs and not included here).
+ the feature/bug mentioned most frequently was the absence of  
context menu support.

We will be sending out a less verbose version of this kind of update  
on a more regular basis going forward.

Sheila


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