[Design] Fwd: [Bug 4520] An alternate way to enter time in event detail view

[Heikki Toivonen]

Mimi Yin wrote:
> 1. Why would someone want to enter date/time information in the first place?

Because events usually happen on certain date and time ;)

Or maybe you need to clarify what you mean by 'enter'.

> 2. What are the other ways in which users can assign date/time information?
> + e.g. Why would someone edit date/time information in the detail view
> as opposed to manipulating the event lozenge in the calendar canvas
> directly?

I find that I typically create an event by double clicking in the
calendar. I typically move the lozenge by mouse to start at the right
time if my click was inaccurate originally. If the event is short (a few
hours max) I often drag the bottom of the lozenge to the right spot.

The problem with manipulating the lozenge directly is that to see what
the actual end time is I have to look in the detail view, away from the
place where I am actually doing the drag.

When I am creating an event that lasts longer than a day, I switch to
the detail view to type the end date and time. But I find I am really
slow to type the date for a couple of reasons: 1) I have to find out
from somewhere else (maybe minicalendar) the actual date I need to
enter, and 2) I still have to mentally adjust to entering in format
mm/dd (as opposed to dd/mm that my muscles are trained to do). I have
found that the easiest (and probably fastest although I haven't
measured) way for me to enter a date is to click a date on a calendar
that pops up next to the date field. The one I like the best is where
simply moving the focus to the text field pops up the calendar next to it.

Also, I believe that the fastest way to enter an event would be with a
keyboard (as opposed to double clicking the calendar).

> 3. What are the different kinds of date/time information people will
> want to enter? e.g.
> - Date + Time range
> - Date + Time
> - Date range
> - Certain amount of time from Today
> - Certain amount of time before a certain date
> - Certain amount of time before/after an event
> - Month
> - Week
> - Day
> - Soon, Whenever, Unknown
> 
> *Does anyone have real examples of these different kinds of dates?
> Especially the kinds that aren't generally supported by traditional
> calendar clients? Examples from paper calendars? back of the envelope
> task lists? etc.*

I've used (in some other calendars than Chandler) Date + Time, Date
range, Certain amount of time before/after an event.

I would like to be able to enter half open events to mark deadlines and
the like. I can also sort of see the need for fuzzy times, but I am not
sure if it would be better to set arbitrary time when that thing would
'tickle' you to do something about it.

> 4. What are the different contexts people might be in when entering
> date/time information? e.g.
> + Calendar canvas looking at the week that they want to add an event to
> + Calendar canvas looking at a week that is far, far away from the week
> they want to add an event to
> + Looking at an event on the calendar canvas that needs to be moved to
> 10 weeks from this week
> + Looking at an event on the calendar canvas that needs to be moved to a
> different day in the same week

I've done all of the above.

> 5. What are some other date/time related widgets that might be useful to
> have in the detail view? e.g. a button that will "Show you this event on
> the calendar".

Yup.

I sort of got the impression from some talks we had a while ago that you
should be able to link items somehow. If we had that, it would be
natural to say: show me all information related to this event.

-- 
  Heikki Toivonen


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