Friday, May 10, 2013

Bad Frameworks Limit Us

Just a quick post to remember a thought: Why do we let past paradigms constrain how we use technology?

Specifically, I use Zimbra at work for my calendar (group calendar).  You have the option of showing one day, the week, the workweek or a list.  Why can't this be customized - why to I have to continuously change weeks to work on my Monday schedule?  It seems obvious that I should be able to choose the number of days prior to the date and future to the date with some limitation on the total number of days that can be shown at once (for space/readability reasons).

I'd much rather be able to look at one day past, today and five days in to the future.  So simple, and yet our past paper calendar framework constrains interface designers in non-useful ways.

[Update: 2013-06-01 - Google calendar, I just noticed this, does have the four day view that lets you look at the next four days alone.  Just what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, my firm doesn't use it.]

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