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Qrystal
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Some of you who are complaining about the UI might want to check out the Multi-Line view instead of Grid. (Switching is possible from within Account Settings.) Multi-Line is much cleaner, helping me feel like I've zoomed away from the clutter of the details of my tasks, and it's easy to zoom back in when I need to know the details.
The Multi-Line view is most useful once you are comfortable changing the sort parameters. This is because the only other thing listed (when you don't have details expanded) is the same thing by which you have sorted the tasks. So, for example, in my Main view (with Hotlist and Starred views) I usually sort by Due Date, and so all I see is the task description and the due date, until I expand the tasks to see more. However, in Folder view, I tend to sort by Tag, because that is more useful to me there.
Sometimes I work with Show Details expanded the whole time. This is because I tend to have notes outlining subsubtasks, or listing multiple iterations of the same kind of task (like my "mark assignments" task will have a note saying that I'm done #1, #2, #3, partway through #4, and #5 is ready to be picked up).
Generally when I'm browsing through the items though, I'll keep the details hidden so I can breeze through with minimal distractions.
Granted, there are other suggestions that can be made about the whole experience of using the website, but please do check out the other view option for a little while and see if it helps!
Since I'm here, if I were to make some specific suggestions for improvements, I would say that customizing the sidebar is very high on my wish list. I'd like to remove things I don't use, rearrange and even resize the things I do use, and be able to add more options of my own (like saved searches).
Another idea would be for a way to have tabs (for Folders, Tags, etc.) listed along the side instead of the top, because then more could be listed at once. (This would be a pretty drastic change though, and would have to be optional or else people could get confused.) Perhaps this would also mean that instead of the customizable sidebar I mentioned above, it could be a customizable header bar, which could contain any or all of the current sidebar items as well as the View By items.
Just some thoughts! :)
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mccotter
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I have a couple of mockups of what I envision would be a better UI design. It's not so much the window dressing on the site (this can be changed with user styles / greasemonkey scripts), as it is the underlying structure of the elements. I don't think having the views done horizontally across the top of the screen works well. Lists of dynamic length, such as your contexts, folders, tags, etc ought to be vertical.
I pushed the views to the sidebar, gave saved searches its own section, and slid the existing elements from the side bar to the bottom. Several of the existing elements on the side bar are of questionable value. Several are unnecessary completely, such as the "Folders and Contexts" item. This functionality ought to be incorporated into the actual folders view and contexts view. "Goals", likewise, can be incorporated into the Goals view itself.
A couple of the other items don't need to be one of the main navigational elements, so I demoted those to subpages such as account settings. For instance, the functionality in "sharing" should go to account settings or the sharing view, "booklets" should go to tools and services, or that maybe could stay on the main page if some deem it important enough.
Right now, the Views are listed across the top, when you click on one it populates all of the corresponding elements as tabs listed horizontally across the page. This doesn't work well IMO because you'll quickly run out of room if you have a bunch of tags. I envision these "submenus" as fly-outs when you click on one of the views in the sidebar.
Of course I'm not a UI designer, so I probably committed some cardinal sins, so feel free to critique.
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mccotter
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I left the content pane empty because that could be left largely intact with the menu system described here.
Edit: I know it's not exactly the same type of product, but I think Evernote serves as a good example of where the UI should head.
This message was edited Mar 12, 2010.
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mccotter
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Another version of the "fly-out". Would activate on click, not on mouse-over (those mouse-over menus are annoying).
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keviv321
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Here is my Toodledo setup. I am happy with my GUI. I am using Vin's Toodledoish which I modified according to my tastes. (You can see I love Calibri font)
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Transisto
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Reading from top to bottom as in your mockups IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE
It's not a matter of preference, it's raw logic.
View By: Main | Folder | Context | Goal | Due-Date | Priority | Tag | Status | Sharing | Search | Calendar I JUST CAN"T FOCUS ON THAT AS SEPARATE ITEM
as written in http://www.toodledo.com/forums/2/4321/0/web-interface-big-improvements-to-be-made.html
By having all View by action words inline at the top this is what happen. :
I see the line then read through it all , then look to get my mouse , then move close, then read it all again find the good one, and click it. Having different color or better, having icons beside each word at the top would help a lot.
Actualy the " | " delimiter (read as I) is worst than a triple space.
Dimming some useless text or adding some spacebar shouldn't take months to do. http://pkoi.ca/ffftoood.png
These simple little design mistake are plain WTF ?
Just 2 min ago I had the experience of searching for 30 sec while on the phone for the CALENDAR word.
BTW Vin's Toodledoish mod make this text even crimpier.
Ps: dunno why I was complaining , There is close to nothing to see from the calendar view.
This message was edited Mar 13, 2010.
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PeterW
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Hi Transisto,
You could give my theme a try. I've made the View-by bar a little bigger and have dimmed the text of the non-current views to make it immediately obvious which view is the current one. I also made the tabs and text on the tabs a little bigger.
The other thing you could do is modify one of the scripts to suit your own tastes. It's what I did!
Look here: http://userstyles.org/styles/25595
This message was edited Mar 14, 2010.
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Qrystal
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Posted by mccotter:
It's not so much the window dressing on the site (this can be changed with user styles / greasemonkey scripts), as it is the underlying structure of the elements. I don't think having the views done horizontally across the top of the screen works well. Lists of dynamic length, such as your contexts, folders, tags, etc ought to be vertical.
...
Right now, the Views are listed across the top, when you click on one it populates all of the corresponding elements as tabs listed horizontally across the page. This doesn't work well IMO because you'll quickly run out of room if you have a bunch of tags. I envision these "submenus" as fly-outs when you click on one of the views in the sidebar.
Yes yes YES! Structure is the problem, and using a vertical list of views with submenus is the solution that would make this whole experience feel much less dated.
Even better: I think it's all cosmetic, and so it shouldn't be difficult to implement! It might even be possible for a third party to redesign the interface just by looking at the Page Source!
Great job on the mockups, mccotter, because they definitely show how much more clear our views can become. I prefer the first of the two fly-out styles though, because the second would compress the content pane.
On the subject of sidebar width, I'd imagine it would best be adjustable. Also, really long names of things (like Recently Completed) should wrap to multiple lines.
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mccotter
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Posted by Qrystal:
Great job on the mockups, mccotter, because they definitely show how much more clear our views can become. I prefer the first of the two fly-out styles though, because the second would compress the content pane.
On the subject of sidebar width, I'd imagine it would best be adjustable. Also, really long names of things (like Recently Completed) should wrap to multiple lines.
On the second style, the sub-menu could float over the content pane rather than pushing it aside, so you wouldn't have a problem with shrinking the avialable area for the content pane. The sub-menu would collapse away when you click on one of the sub-menu items. Yes, your view of the content pane would be obstructed for the short period that you make use of the "Views" menu, but I don't think this would be a problem in actual use. This would also allow the sidebar to be fixed width, with the sub-menus automatically adjusting width to accomodate the length of the text.
I don't particularly care for the idea of the sub-menu text wrapping across multiple lines, I think it would get messy very fast, but that's just my take.
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Qrystal
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I guess I didn't think floating menus would work is because you kinda need to always know what your current "tab" (current nomenclature) aka sub-view you are in. So, it's more than just a way to get to that view, but a way to be reminded of what view you're in.
I suppose there could be a header too, but ... less is more, right?
Also, I can see how wrapping could be ugly if it's not done right, but I think abbreviating is pretty ugly too. Whatever the case though, I still think having the width adjustable is a good idea, and let double-clicking the edge of the sidebar resize it so that it fits the longest of the items listed (kinda like how spreadsheet columns can be quickly resized that way). The default width could be such that "Recently Completed" is the longest item that doesn't need to wrap or be abbreviated. Or something. It was just a thought. :)
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Transisto
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People are bringing very good UI design here, hope Toodledo implement some of them in the near future.
Posted by PeterW:
Thanks , I have installed your Style but it's much worst (weird). The whole top bar is now half as wide as the one below.
May look into code to fix or make my own.
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Transisto
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bump...
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Dextrone
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Please, I agree. If it wasn't for the Appigo Todo App, I wouldn't be using Toodledo and wouldn't be renewing. Toodledo has an incredible feature rich back end, now it needs a simplified but still feature rich front end. It's incredible Appigo Todo + Toodledo Sync!
As much as I wanted to embrace and use Toodledo before since it had every possible feature I could dream of and want and need, I couldn't. The UI simply didn't work. Now, I have something a bit more usable and it's like having cake and eating it too! There is a way to integrate every possible feature seamlessly into the UI so it doesn't get in the way unless you want it. Toodledo's flexibility is simply incredible (and necessary, please don't go away =) but learning curve steep.
This message was edited May 23, 2010.
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conor
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Agreed - 'Appigo Todo + Toodledo' excellent combination!
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David
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+1. I actually went to Remember the Milk pro because of the more elegant looking UI but I went back to Toodledo because it does everything RTM doesn't. Why doesn't it have a calendar view when selecting a due date?, Why isn't there a pop up menu for the Tags? Why do I need to use the k/b to choose priories and so on. I'm getting more things done with Appigo's ToDo because it's simpler and more efficent. I really want to use Google Tasks as my todo manager but contexts are important with GTD and I'm staying with Toodledo for now.
EDIT: I found a great solution for adding Todo's on the computer and it's through this Google Chrome extension
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ballhmoamkbbfadiealjmgmhbbnellbc?hl=en
I won't even need use the webpage interface anymore!
This message was edited May 27, 2010.
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mat_rhein
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Humm, I really like the toodlechrome plugin and the things skin mentioned in this thread... they sort of solve the UI problem I am sharing with so many people here it seems...
but a real revamp would just be marvelous ;-)
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David
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PeterW
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Posted by David:
I'd never looked at Things before. Looks like Nirvana modelled their navi menu directly on this.
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David
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PeterW
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It's great to see that BitAlpha is continuing to develop Taska. I might try their app out when the new version is available in the app store.
Appigo seem to have slowed down development of Todo recently, probably because they are spending time developing for the iPad.
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