Calendar:Improving the Calendar Views
References
Specifications
- Mail Mode Integration
- Calendar Mode
- Mode Switch Toolbar
- Thunderbird Toolbar Integration
- Thunderbird Mail Integration
Proposals
Mail Mode
Calendar Mode
Task Mode
Current Issues (Lightning 0.3)
The table below lists users feedback regarding the usability of the main Lightning UI.
Issues:
- The calendar below the email accounts is disturbing and to big if you also use the "contact sidebar" extension.
- After starting Thunderbird I don't know in which calendar I'm working in.
- I can't drag an event from one calendar into another.
- All the different colors in the week view are confuses me. Especially same things are highlighted differentially.
- The three buttons (New../Edit../Delete) are somehow strange. I think these buttons are good for creating/changed/deleting events.
- I want to switch between E-Mail and Calendar easily.
- Why am I seeing the mail tree when I'm working in the Calendar?
- I don't want to see Saturday and Sunday. I use my calendar only for my work.
- The left side looks very cluttered.
- How can I switch into a different view?
- I have 3 calendars. One for work, the other are subscribed ones. Which means that I don't have write access on these. I don't know how many times I tried accidentally to create an event in one of the read only calendars.
Proposal
Most of the issues stated above can be fixed by focusing on the following areas:
Rearranging already existing UI elements
At the moment, Lightning 0.3 combines very important information on the left hand side. From an users point of view these are:
- Access to the E-Mail account (Mail Account Tree),
- Calendar (Mini Moth),
- Agenda List (Agenda Tab),
- Todo List (Todo Tab)and
- List of Calendars (Calendar Tab)
The problem with that solution is that 70% of the visual information is placed on 30% of the screen.
Depending on the task users want to fulfill, each element of the left hand pane has a different importance level.
For the tasks "Write or Read Mail" the order could be:
- Mail Account Tree
- Agenda
- Todo
- Mini Month
- Calendar
For the task "Create Event" the order could be as follows:
- Calendar
- Mini Month
- Agenda
- Todo
- Mail Account Tree
To reduce visual clutter I'd like to propose to split Mail, Calendar and Tasks into three separate modes.
- One view which focuses on mail
- One calendaring.
- One tasks
Modes
Default Layout
Today Pane Switched On
Today Pane Options
- Mini Month (CTRL-0)-> Default Off
- Events (CTRL-1)-> Default On
- Tasks (CTRL-2] -> Default On
- ------------------------------------
- +-Dock "Today Pane" Left
- +-Dock "Today Pane" Right (Default On)
Calendar
Tasks
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | T A S K S - - T O O L B A R [Search ] | |--------------------------------------------------------------| | Calendar < > || | |`````````````````|| [-] Do Car Wash | | February 2007 || sdnsdsd fcfdf ffdf dfdf | | X X X X X X || ds fcfdf hhj wew | | X X X X X X X || | | X X X X X X X || [+] Do Project Planning | | X X X X || | | || | |-----------------|| [+] GUI Planning | | 0 This Week || | | 0 My Tasks || | | O Next Seven Da || | | || | | || | | || | | || | |-----------------|| | | Mail Cal [Task] || | |-----------------||___________________________________________| +--------------------------------------------------------------+