Calendar & To-do: Separate but equal?
From a user experience standpoint, it may be problemmatic that the “To-do” application (at least on many of the S60 mobiles out there) is missing from the Calendar options (and is located in the Office folder). An end user will expect that she can perform any calendar related tasks, e.g. any activity that needs to be completed in the future, from her Calendar application. Instead, many users have to go to the Office folder to create their “to-do” list(s). The other option is that users create a shortcut to the “To-do” list; but then it may seem wasteful (and perhaps frustrating) to the user to have the Calendar and To-do applications both as shortcuts. Any user may be left wondering: Why are they separated when they fall under the same “category”? However, some in contention may respond: Are those things a user puts on his “to-do” list really and truly related and similar to things he puts into his calendar (e.g. memos, meetings and anniversaries)? Perhaps they are they not equal…and therefore they should be separated.
The calendar app needs a complete rework, not only a to-do append. That is, why you can only entry a memo, meeting or anyversarie? why can’t you have categories? why can’t you create new entry types? why isn’t the to-do integrated? ok, that’s your answer, but you should only look at the palmpilot original pim or even the psion one and see that the S60 pim is some kind of a bad joke. And that’s compared with years old pims, but even just a copycat of one of this should be a very good start.
Just like to agree with Sirul. The user experience of the S60 calendar/todo is woeful and is probably the weakest feature of something like the E61. Get an old Psion to see how it should be done in terms of functionality and then start improving on that…
Calendar and To-do are already integrated in the latest S60 software version, 3rd Edition. There is no longer a separate to-do application. The user can complete all to-do related actions from calendar, and it is also possible to have a alarm for to-do entry.
There are also some other calendar UI and usability enhancements in 3rd Edition. For example, it is now possible to easily find phone number, e-mail address or web address from a meeting entry’s description and, for example in case of phone number, initiate a call, send a message or save it to phonebook. Calendar now also supports time zones.
More information about S60 3rd Edition: http://www.s60.com/business/productinfo/softwareversions/3rdedition
S60 phones having 3rd Edition include Nokia 3250, 5500 Sport, E50, E60, E61, E70, N71, N73, N80, N91, N92 and N93.
In 3rd Edition phones you can switch between different views in the calender by pressing ‘*’. If you have the monthly view by default you can press ‘*’ three times and there you will have to-do notes, fully integrated with the calendar (just like it should)
I do agree with Sirul, even though on 3rd edition the Calendar seems a bit better, it still lacks some very basic features like categories to be really useable. Too bad for devices like the E61 which targets business users, if the builtin apps doesn’t provide those features natively!
And there’s not even a robust third party replacement available, as AquaCalendar is still a bit buggy, and Papyrus not (yet) available for 3rd edition…