[Design] Scrybe

[Mimi Yin]

Several people at OSAF independently tripped over this: http:// 
www.iscrybe.com/cal/index.html

Currently, all there is, is a demo. From what I can tell of the demo,  
there's been a lot of thought given to workflow, aka 'What people  
need to know and what people need to be able to do in order to make  
the decisions they need to make in the order they want to make them.'

3 simple examples are:

People like starting task lists from scratch. They even re-record  
tasks they already know about, but find it useful to jot them down  
again in the context of new lists with other new tasks, e.g. Things I  
must get to Today. Things I can get done while I'm waiting for my  
prescription. Things I need to get done to finish up the kitchen  
renovation.

It's an exercise that helps you wrap your head around all the things  
you need to do.

What's more is, not only do people like making new lists, they  
specifically do NOT like to retrofit new tasks and/or new lists into  
what they already have, half of which is probably out of date anyway.

Most task managers don't accommodate this need for list-making from  
tabula rasa.

Scrybe appears to, by providing import mechanisms to get lists from  
tools like spreadsheets into Scrybe's task manager (copy and past  
would be better).

By 1) acknowledging that user workflows don't begin and end entirely  
within the confines of the app; and 2) building bridges to other  
applications users are likely to use, Scrybe will stand a much better  
chance of staying useful, up-to-date and relevant to users as a task  
management tool.

-----

Task dates and Calendar

All task lists have some notion of a due date. Many have a confusing  
array of due-ish dates. Start date. End date. Milestone dates. Check- 
in dates. Review dates. Post-mortem dates. Alarms. Recurring alarms.

I have yet to see one that has thought to integrate dates related to  
tasks onto the calendar.


If/When you assign a due-date to a task, how are you going to want to  
access that task again? When you're reviewing your schedule on your  
calendar. Scrybe doesn't let you see tasks as individual items on  
your calendar, but you can anchor task lists to a particular day on  
the calendar.

-----

Fish-eye navigation in the calendar

When your manager wants to know when you can realistically get away  
for a half-day offsite, how do you pick 2-3 days that work for you?

+ You start zoomed out, with a view of the next few weeks, to get a  
general sense of how packed your schedule is over that time period.
+ You identify 2-3 days that are relatively light, zoom into them to  
make sure there isn't some other factor you're overlooking, e.g. Next  
Tuesday may be light but I'm participating in the blood drive that  
same morning.
+ However, you still want to maintain a sense of context in the  
surrounding week because there may also be things happening before  
and after 'Next Tuesday' that affect its viability as an offsite day  
(e.g. Are you going to be out of town right before? Are there big due  
dates coming up right after?)

-----

The next video promises to deal with Sharing and Collaboration. Beta  
is schedule for October, which is almost over!

Mimi



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