Summary table widget

Contents

• # Open Issues
• # Wireframes
• # Clusters
• # Written specification

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Open Issues

• How does the "explicit order" view layout option work?
• Do we want to support inline editing? A Cheap and easy version?
  • Rt-click context menus for Triage status, Stamping, Message history columns
  • Edit Date, Who, About column
• How does the embedded Calendar Day view in the Dashboard view interact with the Summary table? This should be rationlized with the Calendar item layout option.
• What is maximum resolution of timestamp? 15 min? 1 min?

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Wireframes

• Summ_Table_20040826.gif:
  

• Summ_Table_20040908.gif:
  

• See TriageDesign for simplified fish-eye timestamp.

• clusters_functionality.gif:
  

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Written spec

• Motivation
• The summary table widget is a cross-parcel widget for displaying any collection of items in a view (with the exception of the embedded calendar day view in the Dashboard view)

• Workflows
• Organizing items in a single view
• StampingWorkflow items
• Creating, managing and retrieving explicit collections
• Entering (in-line editing)

Functionality

• Information design
• Motivation (see [Workflow] Data as knowledge)
  • Communicates 2 most important attributes of any item ON the item itself
  • Reduce the need for decoding icons
  • Communicates knowledge about user's data (maps user's IN / OUT activity curve)
• IN = Left aligned
• OUT = Indented
• Bold = Messages just to Me or Unread / Unsent [OI^?]
• Pixelated = Marked as Junk
• Grey = Marked for Archive

Columns

• [OI^?] Explicit order
• Date
  • Date sent
  • Do on time
  • Due by time
  • Deferred until
  • Icon for calendar dates: Confirmed, Tentative, FYI
• Triage status
• Stamp pulldown: Task, Event, [OI^?] Resource (Click to persistently select. More than 1 can be selected at a time.)
• Communications history
  • Replied to, Forwarded, Updated
  • Unread, Draft, Queued, Error (disappears after message is Read or Sent)
• Who
  • From
  • To, CC, BCC
• About
  • Subject
  • Title
• Attachments

• Adding and removing columns
• Right click on a column to remove that column or add a column to the right of that column
• Select column to add from a short default list
• Select "Choose attribute from attribute manager" to bring up attribute manager where user can select from the complete list of attributes
• [Optional] Select "Edit option" to change the default list of attributes

• Sorting columns
• Default is in ascending order
• 1-click to change to descending order

Rows

• Contents
• 1 item per row

• Widgets
• Bi-directional Collection disclosure triangles
• Ad-hoc collection layer

• [IntD]
• DnD to reorder rows in an explicit order (see [Workflow] Organizing items in a single view) (see [Workflow] Explicit collections)
• States: ACT, MD (Selected) plus
  • Light blue to show other items that are members of the selected item's default ad-hoc collection (works like Apple Mail)
  • Item that is being dragged is semi-transparent
  • DnD onto an item MO
  • DnD onto the collection layer MO
  • DnD in between items to reorder items MO
• Feedback
  • Successfully added item to a collection
  • Failed to add item to a collection

Clusters

• Clusters open in-place, inside the current collection
• An item can have more than 1 cluster
• Every item has a default cluster, which is the last clustered viewed from the selected item)
• An item's cluster can contain items that are not in the current collection

• Viewing clusters In list view
• Select item
• Members of item's default cluster are highlighted in lighter color
• Right-click item to open item's default cluster
• Open cluster from item's Detail view

• Viewing clusters in clustered view
• View menu >> View by cluster
• Click on disclosure triangle
• Opens selected item's default cluster
• Drag items into cluster from current collection or other collections
• Drag items out of cluster to add item to current collection
• Drag items out of cluster and off into "the void" to remove item from cluster
• Drag items out of cluster into Trash to delete item and remove item from all collections and clusters
• Click Delete in toolbar to remove selected item from cluster
• Hit Delete on keyboard to remove selected item from cluster
• Reorder item in cluster

• Adding items to clusters
• DnD 1 item onto another to add cluster
• Flash for confirmation

• DnH 1 item onto another to open destination item's default cluster
• Place item in open cluster

• DnD item onto cluster in destination item's Detail view
• Flash for confirmation

Fish-eye timestamp [Not in Kibble]

• Motivation (see [Workflow] Data as knowledge)
• Take up less space with the timestamp
• Reduce repetition of timestamp information
• Reduce visual noise of timestamp
• Makes timestamp information easier to read
• Communicates knowledge about user's data (timescale reflects user's PIM activity level over time)
• Users don't really need to have specific time information

• [InfD]
• First item in the view always has a complete datestamp
• Only the 1st instance (in a sequence) of a year, month, day, hour is displayed
• Tick = AM / PM divide (12 noon)
• Increase in # of items increase / day = Increase in detail of timestamp information
• Maximum resolution of timestamp = ??
• Floating timescale (not 1:1 mapping of timestamp: item)

Features for .4

Columns

• Image in header
• Dynamically changing column header name (depending on what kind of content item you have selected)
• Click header to sort column
• Right click column header for context menu to add, remove, change columns
• OOTB columms:
  • When
  • Kind stamp
  • Mail history
  • Who
  • About

Information design

• Indent for outgoing messages

IP-A status Following features will likely slip 0.4:

• Image in header
• Column sorting
• In-place (ad-hoc) collections functionality

Beyond .4

• Simplified Fish-eye
• Only display time for Today's items
• The term "fisheye" comes from the Datelens project

• Rows
• Variable height rows

• Columns
• Explicit order column
• DnD columns around
• Attachments (not .4)

• Ad-hoc collections
• Drag and hover to open target content item's default ad-hoc collection
• Drag and hover over disclosure triangle of target content item to put dragged content item directly into alternate ad-hoc collection

• Interaction design
• In-line editing
• Click and hold and select for pulldown menu of options for
  • Stamping: Put on Taskpad, Put on Calendar
  • Message history: Mark as unread, Mark as unsent, Mark as draft, Needs reply
  • Triage status: Now, Done, Later
• Slow D-click to edit Who, Date columns on items that have not been sent or received
• Slow D-click to edit About column

• Visual design
• Consistent column header style
• No lines between rows and columns
• Background color for open ad-hoc collections
• Animation
  • Opening and closing ad-hoc collections
  • Adding and removing things (ie columns, items)

• Additional feature
• Compromise on the axed scrollbar anchors feature: A button at the top / bottom of the scrollbar to get you to end of the list. It's really annoying in Apple Mail that you have to scroooolllllll to see new messages. Basically a "Home" button.

.5

• Columns
• The following column - attribute mappings are expressed in the following format: Kind - Attribute name - Attribute value
• Main column header should be capitalized. Attribute name in parentheses should be lower case.

• Who column
• Notes, Tasks, Events - Who - Blank (to the user)
• Messages - Who (from) or (to) - Display from if it's incoming mail. Display to if it's outgoing mail.
• Shared messages - Who (from) or (to) - Display from if the sender is me. Otherwise, display to.

• About column
• [OI^?] There is a proposal to change the About column to be Subject for all Kinds. Otherwise, it should be:
• Notes, Tasks, Calendar - About (Title) - Title
• Email - About (Subject) - Subject

• Date column
• The following proposal is contingent on the ability to display an icon in the same cell as text in the summary table widget
• Which date to display in order of priority:
  1. Calendar date (if Alarm date is dependent on the Calendar date: ie. 15 minutes before)
  2. Alarm date (even if there is a calendar date so long as the alarm date is a custom date)
  3. Date sent or Date received

• Notes - No date
• Notes stamped as Tasks - No date
• Tasks - No date
• Calendar items - Date (on calendar) - Calendar date icon + Calendar date
• Calendar items without calendar date - No date
• DRAFT email - No date
• OUT email - Date (sent) - Date sent
• IN email - Date (received) - Date received
• DRAFT emails stamped as Tasks - No date
• OUT emails stamped as Tasks - Date (sent) - Date sent
• IN emails stamped as Tasks - Date (received) - Date received
• Tasks stamped as Events - Date (on calendar) - Calendar date icon + Calendar date

• Alarm dates take precedence over all of these dates unless it is an alarm that is dependent on a Calendar date (ie. 15 minutes before)