So I'm not really sure what point you are trying to make.
I don’t care about present-and-future items with equal granularity. I wouldn’t mind seeing today in an hour-by-hour view, but I don’t need the same granularity when showing events three days from now.
If I switch to a more granular view for today, I lose the ability to see any of what’s happening next week.
The view should show 1 week past and the rest future, regardless of the current time of month, and have continuous rather than chunked scrolling.
It's interesting how similar ideas keep coming up every so often.
A bit of googling also turns up http://eagereyes.org/blog/2008/fisheye-calendar-at-yahoo.htm... and a PDF of Bederson's paper on Fisheye calendars http://www.lib.umd.edu/drum/bitstream/1903/1201/1/CS-TR-4368...
Does anyone else do this? I've seriously considered contacting a calendar manufacturing company to print "Cartesian Calendars" in this manner... or if any such thing already exists, please let me know!
Here is a screen-shot I found online: http://tiny.cc/3gwoj
I'll try to be specific.
The time is highlighted. This seems associated with the next column over, which is also highlighted (at least, compared to the rest of the column).
Next, the top and bottom of columns match up to the next column (or previous column) with the next or previous day/month. Can you scroll through these? What happens to that relationship then?
Where is April 16? 13? Is there an easy way to tell which column they are in without doing math? I can see it's 7 days ahead in the second column, but to find a date, I'm still having to scan both columns quickly to try and find the date. It's in order, but moving from the bottom to the top feels unnatural, and the sizing difference of the rows means I can't just easily/quickly scan.
Which column do I go to to find a date? Let's say I want to find an overview for the week of Aug. 8, the due date of my son. It seems like selecting a single date requires navigation in all columns, or maybe just a few. Once you start moving one column, does it affect all? That destroys relationships between columns, and then it feels like you are playing slots.
If you do keep the association, you suddenly create a problem where moving one column moves all columns. If you don't allow changing the columns (it's simply a view), then you can't use it to enter data and in turn reduces it's value. However, even with just the view, you dedicate 75% of the view to future events, 50% to events more than 7 days ahead.
I do like the progression from left to right. I also like the idea of present information getting a more detailed view while future data get's more concise. I don't think you present it in an efficient manner, but I like were you could be going with this.
TL;DR: Slot Machines don't make good planners. =)
Do people really care about the exact day number that something is on? How about just displaying items in order under "second half of April"? Then you won't have space wasted if there's aren't any appointments for a few days, but the data is still there. And perhaps show the day number on hover or something.
Log10 of 2, 5, 10: 0.3, 0.7, 1.0
Log10 of 7, 30, 360: 0.8, 1.5, 2.5
- make each of the main boxes a little bit narrower so you can have a full week (1+6) in the top section, and a full second week (including full-sized weekend days) across the bottom
- make the "flow" obvious somehow. A thicker line separating the top boxes from the bottom would help. Slightly darker or lighter background colors as you get farther from "today" would help as well.
- squeeze in navigation controls: a big "today" button, and forward/backward day and week arrows (in the day and week areas).
- the very bottom right box could be replaced with "upcoming", and list off anything marked as a priority in the next few weeks after the end of this display.
From my perspective:
- Last week is important on Monday ... but only on Monday. I do a quick review/plan for the following week and I use data from the previous week for accountability purposes -- as in: Did I deliver on action items from the previous week? I like to get that out of the way on Monday morning so as not to have it hanging over my head the rest of the week.
- Some appointments and meetings are more important or come with greater consequences if missed. The day view is dead on, but I'd expand it to be a pad of "Day View" (a.k.a. What's Important hour by hour) at the top with starred items beneath. For instance, my Dentist charges $75 if an appointment is canceled with less than three days notice (this is never enforced, but his time is important, too). My current method is to set a reminder four days before. Once I receive the reminder, I validate that I can make the appointment and reset it to remind me 1 day before hand so that I can cancel anything else that is short-notice that conflicts, then I reset the reminder to 20 minutes prior so that I get off my duff and drive to the Dentist office. I have a similar kludge for important meetings or ones that require a great deal of prep work. Since I check my calendar constantly, I could avoid all of this nonsense if it was just sitting under a thick line beneath my "Day View" as a constant reminder.
I could go for a 3-column (or row, depending on display type) calendar, where the first column shows today in detail, the second column shows the next week in lesser detail, and the final column shows the next month in even less detail.
Perhaps clicking on a given day would bring that day into the first column and adjust the rest of the calendar accordingly. A big fat "today" button and arrows to skip by day/week/month would be fantastic.
(As the OP says, a better artist would mock this up. I am not a better artist. Sorry.)
By scrolling/swiping you could change the day with focus. Also by tapping on any visible date, you could give focus to that day. Also a "Today" button to go to the present.
As for having an expanded view of today, and a reducing detail view of the following days ... that's a great idea i think.
Google Calendar is also blocked where I work, but using https does the trick.
People have the same ideas at the same time. It's always nice to get another perspective.
