Improved Calendar Design

[peterleinchen]

Understood (and accepted).
But who is?
And will this person ever answer here? (now serious: see above linked list of TJC threads that were never answered officially despite the high number of votes)
and not looking after @dcaliste as he is always responsive and solution oriented (thank you)

Or is the only chance to get an official answer on this forum still:

• either bring it up as dev on the IRC community meetings
• or to bring this to Jolla’s attention via Zendesk (like here and then only after almost two weeks and a second request this

[flypig]

It’s always worth bringing up interesting design ideas, and the discussion everyone is having here is important because it represents how people really use the device, and that does get picked up. But this is just my personal opinion and not an official response I’m afraid.

In my view, if you want a guaranteed response within a given time frame, bringing something up at the community meeting is probably the best way.

[Solidus]

I would like to see the possibility to change the view between month, week and day also.

[Sefriol]

Calendar topic from today’s Community Meeting

[sebix]

The day view is already there (tap on the date displayed below the grid).

[Solidus]

You’re right, of course.

[Raymaen]

well the Answer in the Meeting is not very concrete but it is somehow a response… lets hope for the best… what els can we do, the just hope.

[jojomen]

Nice work!

I was afraid the entries would be too difficult to read in that small font, but trying it out on my phone did work. It may still be an accessibility issue for the future me with worse vision.

Two additional suggestions:

• Adding a week view would be nice. I’m used to having that as my default; focusing on seven days takes care of the readability problems.
• Add left/right swipe on bottom half of screen to flip through days. This gesture is currently unused and would remove the need for the silly day-tapping exercise, which annoys me too. (Sideways swipe in the top half flips through months, so there would be a nice symmetry of actions.)

[spheniscus]

Update on Nov 3, 2020: Had up to three CalDav calendars running - simoultaneously? Only one was shown/active. Reminder rang up to three times for one single event, even though just one cal was active. Almost got used to it.
Glad to report now 3.4.0.24 brought some true improvement considering CalDav implementation. NextCloud sync is fine, in both directions, and when there is on CalDav account connected, the number of calendars corresponds to those I connected to.
Good job, so far.

[Cryx]

Ah, I also have that thing with multiple reminders. We use several devices along the family with shared calendars, but only on Sailfish I get them multiple (and yes, also three times, a do also synced via Nextcloud).

[danielfinsler]

however it would be nice if android calendars could sync! To me it seems rather XA2 devices with Android 8 inside broke syncing, and X and older devices still should work.

[dcaliste]

Please, open a bug in the report category describing your problem : version, number of calendars… You can also follow what I wrote there: VALARM-loop of jolla-alarm-ui to list and edit your alarms. It may help to understand the issue.

[spheniscus]

To clarifiy: Multiple reminders are gone since I updated to 3.4.0.24. At least, for me, as of now.
Above I posted Improved Calendar Design a workaraound that worked for me in the meantime after sync stopped working. Using the solution linked above, sync worked again, but (up to) tripled the reminders.
Now, in 3.4.0.24, everything is fine. ONE reminder per date.

[Pheet]

I wouldn’t mind trading some level of event detail for better overview information (and maybe even better aesthetics). Here’s a quick sketch:

Of course some use-cases would need a bit further thinking, e.g. what if one would have a lot of 10 or 15 minute things on one day?

edit: typo

[Se]

I was happy when I saw that the calendar was updated in SfOS 4.3. But for me it looks too much like Android, and MUCH MORE IMPORTANT I think the dots are too small and so hard to see (1.). The dot from a new entry should be replaced with a dash like an event (2.) It looks more consistent that way, I think.

1. 

2. 

Edit: A raised number in (screenshot 2) creates additional space for more appointments than necessary and also draws the user’s attention.

[Raymaen]

well I think for private use of the calendar dots or lines are OK. But for business usecases it is irrelevant if it may look like android or elsewhat. The overview should be clear. Less searching for the right entries is not solved with dots or lines. Only if there is possibility to show text in the month overview you have what you need in one second when you look at the basic calenderview (month). Like i described in the beginning…

the Design of the Calendar got improved, that is very nice to see, but not improved enough in my opinnion for business use. Jolla seems not keen enough in the designstrategy of the calendar. Design should follow the function not the other way round! Thats the Architect - Engineer issue

[Se]

you are right. If I said 'it looks too much like Android ’ I only mean that we are on SailfishOs.

And I Agree with you that funktion is more important as dots or lines. Jolla should add the patch ‘add more calendars’. that would help in biusenes i think.

[Pheet]

I’m nitpicking but if design always follows function then you’ll get inconsistencies, clutter and other Ux troubles. It should be some kind of sweet spot, an synthesis of the two. Overview, of course, will be a compromise due to limited screen real estate; especially when you are a calendar power-user with many calendar items per day.

But yes, it needs work, especially when considering business and power-users.

[beerw0lf]

I’ve been using Android calendars for the past decade or so. Now trying to use SailfishOS calendar is difficult. The minimalist month overview looks nice, but usability is not great when I’ll have to tap over each day to see the upcoming events. I’m aware of the day view, but we should at least have a week view too to make any serious use of the calendar.

I see this is an old topic. I can only hope this gets more attention going forward. In the mean time, is there any patches that could help us out? I found this on Github, but sadly it does not work on the current OS version.

[Se]

Yes, the Callender app could use a few updates to improve usability.
Tap the “Today” button at the bottom of the month view to get a detailed day view. And there you can scroll through the days instead of having to tap each one.