When you talk about a calendar program, you are talking about keeping track of events. A person looking to keep track of events is most likely to be interested in what will happen that friday, rather than what will happen 2 or 3 fridays from then.
That isn't to say people don't need to access dates based on month, but that they wish almost exclusively to be told of events coming in the next week, and most importantly the day they are currently in. Be it a planner or birthday calendar. These claims are based on countries where the weekend is the norm. Anywhere that works on a different schedule will be different. Like I said, being able to add your doctor's appointment 6 months from now by month is useful, but forcing the user to click 6 times to get to the month, then click on the right day, then enter the time, then click 6 more times to get back, Is a pointless waste of effort. Show the whole year. Show more than a whole year even. Rework the scroll bar to tab between months rather than pages for quick access. Splitting on the month doesn't help anyone. I hope this is clearer, I can only assume people thought I meant to page on the week and not the month, which is the exact opposite of what I meant. Paper can't scroll, windows can. Wall calenders have pages because paper can't scroll. Possibly also to provide space for 11 extra images. Some calenders add 6 extra months of the next year to have 17 more pictures. So when I say people think in weeks, I mean that in the generalized corporate world that most computer users work in, being shown a lot of information about one week is more important than being able to see one month on the screen all at once. In other words. I would rather have 7 long stacked cells with 4-8 lines in potential of detailed text, than 35 cells (4-6 unused) with less space available for me to see what is going on. If I were less busy, as many people are, I'd like to have an endless stream of 7 day periods, no wasted space and no need for next buttons. And the scrollbar should be color-coded like the months are in the pane, so I can click on a color to get to the month. (put the name of the month in there too.) Most of the world follows the 7 day paradigm. Even when they don't follow the 5 on 2 off work week paradigm. At least when you talk about the workplace. I'll draw a diagram if people ask me to. Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36489 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
