When you open a task and read the text in the pop-up dialog, the
links are not active. If you show the task details by choosing the
button for 1 line or multiple lines. The link is active.
I also think the pop-up box is small and when you have a lot of
text in the task details, I have to scroll a bunch and the width is
too small.
When you open a task and read the text in the pop-up dialog, the
links are not active. If you show the task details by choosing the
button for 1 line or multiple lines. The link is active.
Okay... there is no bug then. the links are only to be active
out of task edit (popup) view.
We have been talking about the pop-up box recently and I have a
feeling it will be replaced at some point in the near future, which
will help to resolve these issues you are talking about. :)
I mentioned this in the past, but I would like to see the pop-up
dialog box go away.
I think it would be much nicer to have the task show it's
details when you click it by scrolling a window under it like a
curtain, that contains all it's information.
This flows better in my opinion and does not take me away from
the UI when clicking on task.
I may be the black swan in all this but I do not worry so much
about the UI or some minor implementation issues.
I do understand that developers get kicks out of GUI's that look
brilliant and ICT challenges that result into brilliant
solutions.
For me as a user it is of the upmost important that a GTD app
fits into my workflow. It is not for nothing that I keep looking at
Nirvana from that perspective.
I now understand that the focus of the development team over the
last week or so has gone to the mobile app. That being extremely
desirable: understandable. But the important issues with the web
app have now not been addressed.
I have left my beta with Nirvana because I cannot fit it into my
workflow. And that is not a workflow that is exotic or personal to
me. It is a workflow that any salesguy, business man, rep, anybody
that makes calls, sends mails etc. will recognise.
Nirvana has no answer to that. An attempt to fix a mobile app
without the main web app sorted out is no solution to the
challenges of the market place. Also, with no clear committment to
the Windows, FF and IE community I am convinced that Nirvana will
not make it.
I have told my students to leave Nirvana alone for now and let
Nirvana take its course. For me it is no longer a serious contender
in this market unless a clear development path is chosen, where the
development team listens to the intended users.
It is not so hard to google: there is a list of 150 GTD apps on
the Internet. To stand out in this crowd you have to be
exceptional, be GTD compliant and make the right choices with
regards to functionality. And be totally committed. It took David
Allen almost 10 years to endorse E-Productivity as a GTD compliant
app. In between he has sent countless intermediate versions to the
recycle bin. This is no market to be second pick. You have to be
number one to make it.
GTD is a challenge. For us to practice it and go through the
beheavioural changes and to learn new habits. For the developers
you have to focus on function as well as form.
No one of these 150 apps have made the right choices that I have
seen so far. Nirvana has the opportunity to do so. That means
listening to the outside world and the forum that follows Nirvana
in the discussions. That means taking a broad view as to platforms,
OS's, localization, user perspectives (Europeans are not like
Americans and not like Asians, etc.). If you want your app to be
global you have to think global.
For now I have too many things missing. I am very
disappointed.
I can understand you comments and I do respect what you are
saying. I am not sure that Nirvana has quit working on the major
issues we require for the site just because they are also working
on a Web App.
From what I understand, the coding that Elbert is having to
implement is a complete rewrite in order for the key features to
not only work, but to be scalable in the future. This would make
Nirvana more responsive to changes down the road.
Just like in GTD, you have to recognize your different Energy
levels and step away from a complicated task that you are mentally
drained from to get a fresh perspective.
Not saying this is what happened because only Elbert knows, but
I am sure the site development is the top priority.
Nirvana is not a huge development team at this point and they
are not making any money on their service as of yet. I would
imagine that Nirvana also wants things to move faster but at the
same time I have to remember that they are a small team of two as
far as I can tell.
Just wanted to share some thoughts.
I can completely understand your position and will only hope you
keep an eye out as things get implemented. The community can
benefit from someone with your background and experience.
Hope to see you on the forums still and we all hope that Nirvana
turns out as we hope for.
Thank you for your kind words. It is frustrating for me to dive
into this Beta and look at the functionality to provide feedback. I
am sure you know that that takes time and energy. It also requires
me to run my own GTD system parallel to my "beta" "Nirvana
test.
As I see no progress with the main app, no real feedback from
the dev team to my feedback, combined with development effort going
into the mobile app, I have signed off.
As the web app still has many shortcomings in the support of GTD
workflow, I am sure that any development that goes into the web app
will have repercussions on the mobile app down the line.
I will keep an eye on the forums but will only look at Nirvana
when there is a major new release for the web app.
As for the mobile app: I would have rather started the
discussions on the Iphone app and on the Android app. There is much
functionality to be developed there that will make these stand out
above the crowd.
Seems like this thread got hijacked a bit from its original
intent.
As for notes, the tiny little note window is close to useless. I
I have more than a few sentences I have to scroll. It seems really
stupid when I'm looking at the app on my 24" screen, and can only
read content in a little 3" x 2" square.
This is especially important with the email-in feature. I'll
often forward an email thread into Nirvana so that all the
associated information is attached to a to-do. It's really
convenient to have it right there, but scrolling through an email
thread in that little window is really peeving.
Are you clicking on the note icon to expand the view of notes
inline within your task list view (see attached)? This will help
legibility as the pop-up dialogue box is not an efficient place for
you to read your notes, especially if you have a lot (you are
completely right).
Hey Christiane - you're so exactly right. I never once clicked
that icon. I thought it was just a status notification. "Hey you a
note." With no mouse-over state, it didn't occur to me that it was
click-able. I feel much better now. Thanks.
By the way, this is a great illustration of one of the comments
above about the importance of UI. In my view, UI is the
software. Doesn't matter what features are built in, or what
work-flow is intended, if it's not apparent in the UI. UI is how
ordinary users can get to all that beauty and power you baked
in.
Glad you clicked on the note and found them inline :).
Our UI will become tighter and tighter as we finish adding our
remaining core features and then go back to optimizing. Since Nirvana
is being built organically we are taking the approach of building it,
then improving upon it as we get feedback from users etc... so agreed.
If you didn't want to click on that note then that's a bit of a UI
fail. So functionality first, then making more friendly later.
Not to dwell on this any longer, but if we could click on the
task title itself to display the task details, it would be simple.
Not that the note icon is a bad thing at all.
As I use Nirvana more and more, I notice some of the coding
involved is very well implemented. One example is hitting the (?)
button in any section which display help text of that area. Notice
the smooth animation that takes place as the information scrolls
down like a curtain.
This is what I would love for a task to do when you click on
it's title. A smooth animated scroll down of the details, ready for
me to edit at will.
Taking up this thread, namely on the subject of interpretation
of links. I'm testing the email feature with a little bit of
Applescript from Mail.app to add a link back to the message I'm
forwarding, so I can open it directly in Mail.app from N2 if using
it on my desktop, which is pretty useful for me.
Unfortunately, looks like N2 is finding the "@" symbol in the
message id (e.g. message://%***@S-DC-EXM32.net1.cec.eu.int%3)
and converting the link to a "mailto:" one hence not working as
expected :(
I support the request for rich text but if it's finally not
implemented, I hope the way N2 understands what's in the notes
field could be slightly changed so this works as intended.
@Josema - clarification: was referring to the message://
linking. i like that one and it's a quick win. the rich text editor
is a bit more involved, but something we'd love to support at some
point in the future.
That's exactly what I was thinking. If you move the Flex
Capacitor over to the ion based induction field, you can induce an
impulse shot filled with atoms that would actuate the text fields
in a way that extra code can be pushed to the end user's display,
showing a inverted deviation of the ASCII characters while they
pass through a force field.
You guys are the techies - clearly. And you speak as the techies
would.
Those of us who are also business stakeholder types would have
to add that (in view of the high tech solution proposed by Proximo
and josvandervoort), "we will therefore augment our capability to
innovate without reducing our power to actualize".
Because we believe that it is better to syndicate robustly than
to brand holistically.
Hmmm... so b279 has changed the way it displays the text in
notes wrt the subject. In b269 I was able to add some HTML so it
would be understood by N2 but now this doesn't work.
An example of what worked: <a href="message://<***@server.com>">Open
Message in Mail</a>
I got a proper link that opened that email in my Mail app.
Super.
I now get the source code :(
I guess I was taking advantage of a side effect or
something...
Support Staff 2 Posted by Christiane Magee on 25 Feb, 2010 04:48 PM
thanks for the suggestion. Quick question though, are the web links not working for you? They should be.
:/
3 Posted by Proximo on 25 Feb, 2010 06:34 PM
Web links show up as text for me. Even when I use http://
4 Posted by Proximo on 25 Feb, 2010 06:38 PM
When you open a task and read the text in the pop-up dialog, the links are not active. If you show the task details by choosing the button for 1 line or multiple lines. The link is active.
I also think the pop-up box is small and when you have a lot of text in the task details, I have to scroll a bunch and the width is too small.
Support Staff 5 Posted by Christiane Magee on 02 Mar, 2010 03:18 PM
Okay... there is no bug then. the links are only to be active out of task edit (popup) view.
We have been talking about the pop-up box recently and I have a feeling it will be replaced at some point in the near future, which will help to resolve these issues you are talking about. :)
6 Posted by Proximo on 02 Mar, 2010 03:23 PM
I mentioned this in the past, but I would like to see the pop-up dialog box go away.
I think it would be much nicer to have the task show it's details when you click it by scrolling a window under it like a curtain, that contains all it's information.
This flows better in my opinion and does not take me away from the UI when clicking on task.
:-)
Support Staff 7 Posted by Elbert McLaughlin on 02 Mar, 2010 10:46 PM
+1 for killing the popup.
8 Posted by Proximo on 02 Mar, 2010 11:04 PM
Wow,
Elbert himself gave this a +1
Let me go slap somebody.
Support Staff 9 Posted by Christiane Magee on 04 Mar, 2010 07:31 PM
If Elbert says +1 then my "feeling" will now be replaced with an "absolutely" :)
10 Posted by josvandervoort on 05 Mar, 2010 09:25 AM
Hay, what about my stacked notes??
Support Staff 11 Posted by Christiane Magee on 09 Mar, 2010 06:39 PM
Still thinking on that one. :)
12 Posted by josvandervoort on 09 Mar, 2010 07:14 PM
Christiana and Elbert,
I may be the black swan in all this but I do not worry so much about the UI or some minor implementation issues.
I do understand that developers get kicks out of GUI's that look brilliant and ICT challenges that result into brilliant solutions.
For me as a user it is of the upmost important that a GTD app fits into my workflow. It is not for nothing that I keep looking at Nirvana from that perspective.
I now understand that the focus of the development team over the last week or so has gone to the mobile app. That being extremely desirable: understandable. But the important issues with the web app have now not been addressed.
I have left my beta with Nirvana because I cannot fit it into my workflow. And that is not a workflow that is exotic or personal to me. It is a workflow that any salesguy, business man, rep, anybody that makes calls, sends mails etc. will recognise.
Nirvana has no answer to that. An attempt to fix a mobile app without the main web app sorted out is no solution to the challenges of the market place. Also, with no clear committment to the Windows, FF and IE community I am convinced that Nirvana will not make it.
I have told my students to leave Nirvana alone for now and let Nirvana take its course. For me it is no longer a serious contender in this market unless a clear development path is chosen, where the development team listens to the intended users.
It is not so hard to google: there is a list of 150 GTD apps on the Internet. To stand out in this crowd you have to be exceptional, be GTD compliant and make the right choices with regards to functionality. And be totally committed. It took David Allen almost 10 years to endorse E-Productivity as a GTD compliant app. In between he has sent countless intermediate versions to the recycle bin. This is no market to be second pick. You have to be number one to make it.
GTD is a challenge. For us to practice it and go through the beheavioural changes and to learn new habits. For the developers you have to focus on function as well as form.
No one of these 150 apps have made the right choices that I have seen so far. Nirvana has the opportunity to do so. That means listening to the outside world and the forum that follows Nirvana in the discussions. That means taking a broad view as to platforms, OS's, localization, user perspectives (Europeans are not like Americans and not like Asians, etc.). If you want your app to be global you have to think global.
For now I have too many things missing. I am very disappointed.
13 Posted by Proximo on 09 Mar, 2010 07:33 PM
@jos,
I can understand you comments and I do respect what you are saying. I am not sure that Nirvana has quit working on the major issues we require for the site just because they are also working on a Web App.
From what I understand, the coding that Elbert is having to implement is a complete rewrite in order for the key features to not only work, but to be scalable in the future. This would make Nirvana more responsive to changes down the road.
Just like in GTD, you have to recognize your different Energy levels and step away from a complicated task that you are mentally drained from to get a fresh perspective.
Not saying this is what happened because only Elbert knows, but I am sure the site development is the top priority.
Nirvana is not a huge development team at this point and they are not making any money on their service as of yet. I would imagine that Nirvana also wants things to move faster but at the same time I have to remember that they are a small team of two as far as I can tell.
Just wanted to share some thoughts.
I can completely understand your position and will only hope you keep an eye out as things get implemented. The community can benefit from someone with your background and experience.
Hope to see you on the forums still and we all hope that Nirvana turns out as we hope for.
14 Posted by josvandervoort on 10 Mar, 2010 08:31 AM
@Proximo
Thank you for your kind words. It is frustrating for me to dive into this Beta and look at the functionality to provide feedback. I am sure you know that that takes time and energy. It also requires me to run my own GTD system parallel to my "beta" "Nirvana test.
As I see no progress with the main app, no real feedback from the dev team to my feedback, combined with development effort going into the mobile app, I have signed off.
As the web app still has many shortcomings in the support of GTD workflow, I am sure that any development that goes into the web app will have repercussions on the mobile app down the line.
I will keep an eye on the forums but will only look at Nirvana when there is a major new release for the web app.
As for the mobile app: I would have rather started the discussions on the Iphone app and on the Android app. There is much functionality to be developed there that will make these stand out above the crowd.
I will stay tuned.
Jos
Support Staff 15 Posted by Elbert McLaughlin on 11 Mar, 2010 01:15 AM
Will try and respond to this thread with a clear head soon. In transit form Buenos Aires to Montreal, and then to Austin for SXSW.
16 Posted by schelske on 11 Mar, 2010 06:14 PM
Seems like this thread got hijacked a bit from its original intent.
As for notes, the tiny little note window is close to useless. I I have more than a few sentences I have to scroll. It seems really stupid when I'm looking at the app on my 24" screen, and can only read content in a little 3" x 2" square.
This is especially important with the email-in feature. I'll often forward an email thread into Nirvana so that all the associated information is attached to a to-do. It's really convenient to have it right there, but scrolling through an email thread in that little window is really peeving.
Support Staff 17 Posted by Christiane Magee on 18 Mar, 2010 10:29 PM
Hi Schelske,
Are you clicking on the note icon to expand the view of notes inline within your task list view (see attached)? This will help legibility as the pop-up dialogue box is not an efficient place for you to read your notes, especially if you have a lot (you are completely right).
18 Posted by schelske on 19 Mar, 2010 10:48 PM
Hey Christiane - you're so exactly right. I never once clicked that icon. I thought it was just a status notification. "Hey you a note." With no mouse-over state, it didn't occur to me that it was click-able. I feel much better now. Thanks.
By the way, this is a great illustration of one of the comments above about the importance of UI. In my view, UI is the software. Doesn't matter what features are built in, or what work-flow is intended, if it's not apparent in the UI. UI is how ordinary users can get to all that beauty and power you baked in.
Support Staff 19 Posted by Christiane Magee on 23 Mar, 2010 03:01 PM
Glad you clicked on the note and found them inline :).
Our UI will become tighter and tighter as we finish adding our
remaining core features and then go back to optimizing. Since Nirvana
is being built organically we are taking the approach of building it,
then improving upon it as we get feedback from users etc... so agreed.
If you didn't want to click on that note then that's a bit of a UI
fail. So functionality first, then making more friendly later.
20 Posted by Proximo on 23 Mar, 2010 08:38 PM
Not to dwell on this any longer, but if we could click on the task title itself to display the task details, it would be simple. Not that the note icon is a bad thing at all.
As I use Nirvana more and more, I notice some of the coding involved is very well implemented. One example is hitting the (?) button in any section which display help text of that area. Notice the smooth animation that takes place as the information scrolls down like a curtain.
This is what I would love for a task to do when you click on it's title. A smooth animated scroll down of the details, ready for me to edit at will.
:-)
21 Posted by Josema on 15 Jan, 2011 01:24 AM
Taking up this thread, namely on the subject of interpretation of links. I'm testing the email feature with a little bit of Applescript from Mail.app to add a link back to the message I'm forwarding, so I can open it directly in Mail.app from N2 if using it on my desktop, which is pretty useful for me.
Unfortunately, looks like N2 is finding the "@" symbol in the message id (e.g. message://%***@S-DC-EXM32.net1.cec.eu.int%3) and converting the link to a "mailto:" one hence not working as expected :(
I support the request for rich text but if it's finally not implemented, I hope the way N2 understands what's in the notes field could be slightly changed so this works as intended.
Thanks!
Support Staff 22 Posted by Elbert McLaughlin on 21 Jan, 2011 03:38 PM
@Josema - that is an excellent point, and an easy thing to implement. will add it to the suggested improvements queue... e
Support Staff 23 Posted by Elbert McLaughlin on 21 Jan, 2011 03:39 PM
@Josema - clarification: was referring to the message:// linking. i like that one and it's a quick win. the rich text editor is a bit more involved, but something we'd love to support at some point in the future.
24 Posted by Josema on 22 Jan, 2011 10:29 AM
@Elbert Got it. Thanks!
25 Posted by Proximo on 24 Jan, 2011 07:52 PM
That's exactly what I was thinking. If you move the Flex Capacitor over to the ion based induction field, you can induce an impulse shot filled with atoms that would actuate the text fields in a way that extra code can be pushed to the end user's display, showing a inverted deviation of the ASCII characters while they pass through a force field.
JUST GIVE ME RICH TEXT FORMAT
:-)
26 Posted by josvandervoort on 24 Jan, 2011 08:11 PM
I was told you needed at least a dozen quad core transistors for that ... ...
27 Posted by Rique on 24 Jan, 2011 10:27 PM
You guys are the techies - clearly. And you speak as the techies would.
Those of us who are also business stakeholder types would have to add that (in view of the high tech solution proposed by Proximo and josvandervoort), "we will therefore augment our capability to innovate without reducing our power to actualize".
Because we believe that it is better to syndicate robustly than to brand holistically.
28 Posted by Proximo on 25 Jan, 2011 03:25 PM
ROFL
You guys are funny.
I get lost in some of the coder talk and just wanted to bring this back down to Earth for us humans to understand. :-)
Well.... I guess calling myself Human is pushing it, but you get the idea.
29 Posted by Josema on 25 Aug, 2011 11:33 AM
Hmmm... so b279 has changed the way it displays the text in notes wrt the subject. In b269 I was able to add some HTML so it would be understood by N2 but now this doesn't work.
An example of what worked:
<a href="message://<***@server.com>">Open Message in Mail</a>I got a proper link that opened that email in my Mail app. Super.
I now get the source code :(
I guess I was taking advantage of a side effect or something...
30 Posted by Proximo on 29 Aug, 2011 02:16 AM
Rich text format is a much easier solution. :-)