I am sure there are good reasons for changing the app, but usability (when adding a contact) has become worse lately.
Pressing 'new' used to give a _single_ screen, where I could enter both name and number. And then save it all and be done. This is important: * A single screen, with the whole record _in view_ * just 3 clicks in addition to the typing: - 'new' button, then type a name - 'click other field', then type the number - 'save' Having the option of more fields is nice of course. And obviously, there _may_ not be room for the entire record on the screen, not if there are lots of fields. But there should still be room to fit the entire record on the screen when there is just name & number. And it should all fit, even with the keyboard active! Lots of extra clicking is just bad. Extra dialogs is awful. Adding a contact today goes like this: - click new Get two blank fields. (Why aren't they labeled? Or do I have a a bad theme active?) Turns out one is for 'phone' and the other is 'name', as expected. - click one field. Get a strange dialog. Actually, it is a two-field dialog _just_ like the old 'name & number' dialog. But one is now 'field' and the other is 'value'. Since the 'field' is set to 'phone', the obvious 'value' to enter is the number. So I do that. But how to get out? There is no way out, while the keyboard is showing. BAD! - click the button that removes the keyboard. This reveals the 'save' button. Strange. I should save a record with only a phone number, no name? - click 'save' Came back to the two-field screen, now the number is showing. - click the other field. Gets the odd dialog again. Seems it is a generic data-entry dialog. Something I can recognize because I am a programmer. Other users would surely find this strange and cumbersome, and get lost. But they probably didn't buy a freerunner in the first place... So I write the name. - click to remove the keyboard AGAIN - click 'save' AGAIN - click 'close' Finally back to the 'contacts' screen. 8 extra clicks and 3 dialogs to add a contact now, it used to be 3 clicks and 1 dialog. Another bad thing: the new contact is _not_ in the list. Looks like failure, perhaps I should add him again, rather than adding another contact? But knowing some SHR peculiarities, I close and re-open the contact list and see that the new contact is indeed there. Suggestions: * Reload the list after add If "add contact" is just a routine inside the contact app, then please arrange to re-load the contact list after adding. Not seeing the new contact is confusing and disappointing. If "add contact" is a standalone app, then make it signal the contact list viewer so it reloads the list. * Better dialog layout There should be no need to remove the keyboard in order to 'save' an entry! Currently, those fields use lots of space for something that is usually a short line. Making them smaller should allow both of the fields, their captions, and they keyboard AND the 'save' button to be visible all at the same time. For example, use one-line fields with the caption in line with the field. Such as this: Field: phone Value: 1234567890 [SAVE] [CANCEL] qwertyiop... ...keyboard This avoids the two unnecessary clicks to close the keyboard, and no confusion about where the 'save'-button is. * One dialog instead of three Any extra dialog is usually very bad, because one has to dismiss it somehow. And it obscures the rest of the information. (Whose number am I actually entering now - forgot because I was disturbed...) The dialog for adding/showing an entry is actually nice almost as-is. The error is in having to use those other two, there should be no need for a dialog to edit a particular _field_. If I click the number in the show/add dialog, then let me edit the number _in place_. Similiar if I click the name. That way, one can enter both name and number without moving outside the dialog, without disabling the keyboard once, and without clicking 'save' once per field. Of course, one may have to scroll a record if there are many fields. But I believe a very common case will be two fields - name and number. And a few that perhaps have a work number or a landline number also. Something like: name: thename phone: 1234567890 work: 9876543230 [SAVE][Add field]... keyboard hopefully fits below it all, unless the user have tons of fields like 4 lines of address, email, work address, ... Helge Hafting _______________________________________________ Shr-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shr-project.org/mailman/listinfo/shr-devel
