Dashboard target user discussion

• Last Thursday, we focused on the Dogfood calendar usage scenarios.
  • Pre-meeting notes: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ProposedTargetUserZeroDotSeven
  • Meeting notes: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/DotSevenTargetCalendarUser
• Today - we're enlarging the focus to include calendar, tasks, and notes in shared collaboration scenarios
• Format: 20 min interviews for 3 different user groups
• Each group answers the same set of questions

Usage scenarios to review

• Family/couple
• Esther/mitch
• Working group task management

• Design list (didn't get to this)

Working group task management (Apps team)

Question 1: Describe the universe of information you share and need to keep track of.

• Work items in Bugzilla: Tasks and Bugs
• Architecture page - fuzzy, vague issues that eventually lead to discrete work items in Bugzilla, but not yet concrete enough to be entered as such: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ZeroPointSevenArchitecture
• Developer Documentation on the wiki
  • ie. Intro to Chandler documention for interested developers.
  • But also some result in tasks and bugs (ie. Collections document)
• Apps staus page: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ApplicationProject
  • Meeting notes
  • Project pages
  • Product design and planning resources: ZeroPointSevenPlannning^?, DotSevenProposalsCentralized^?
  • Graphical summaries of Bugzilla database

• Product planning stickie board
• Design phases plan for 0.7 release (provide high-level timeframe for issues)
• Specs

• Modes of communications and information storage
• Wiki
• Bugzilla
• Dev and Design list
• IRC conversations
• SVN - code, comments
• Builds - Tinderbox build status

• ? Do people maintain personal task lists?
  • David - wx project page: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/WxPythonProject
  • Philippe - log - personal notes: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/PhilippeBossutNotes

Focusing on the Architecture Issues, let's outline workflow stages

• Step #1 - Content creation
  • "Sticky" note on computer
  • Email (person to person, or to mailing list)
  • Wiki notes page in the Journal Wiki
  • In-person conversation or IRC dialog
  • Action item from a meeting
  • Jotted down on a personal todo list

• Step #2 - Collection
  • Philippe took bits and pieces of an IRC conversation between Katie and Alec
  • Plopped it on an Architecture issue page on the wiki
  • Emailed the link to the Dev list, asking for input
  • Ensuing chatter on the list about the wiki page
  • Katie, Alec and John added content
  • Reviewed issues during mtg - Posted meeting notes to wiki

• Step #3 - Deconstruction
  • Figuring out owners for each issue
  • As owners make progress (research), they post updates to the Dev list or their individual status
  • Philippe collects progress information and updates the Architecture page
  • Page is a bit out of date
  • As work items emerge, pointers to bugs in Bugzilla are added to the Architecture page

• How is this stuff reflected in personal task management systems?
  • Alec adds stuff to his to head - refers to Bugzilla for concrete work items
  • Some issues were already logged and have owners in Bugzilla
  • John adds it to his weekly todo list

Problems with the above process

• Platform team hasn't been looking at the list. Not a part of their daily reality.
• Lake of clarity about: Is this list just for the apps team? Is it temporary? or is it active list? When is Philippe going to give up trying to update it?
• Katie not thinking of this as the definitive list - just a working list
• List is good because it provides a way for Dev team to do some top-down planning. Birds-eye-view.
• But details are lost and out of date. The Architecture issues page is not rationalized with Bugzilla, can't be trusted for status.
• But we couldn't just go straight to Bugzilla and skip the wiki page stage. The issue in the beginning weren't concrete enough to be entered as work items in a structured database.
• The page was a convenient collection point for ideas.

How is progress tracked on the issues above?

• Mailing lists
• Meetings and meeting notes
• IRC conversations
• Personal email
• Bugzilla
• Philippe updates the page

Is there a time based plan for the Architecture issues?

• From a bottom-up perspective: As issues result in concrete work items, those work items are put into Bugzilla and assigned milestone targets.
• Tasks then get swagged and there is a timeline associated with each Task.
• Hard to know how long they will take until you do some research. Some Tasks are open-ended.

• From a top-down perspective: Design team proposes Phases for 0.7 release, which would drive when we work on certain issues.

Esther and Mitch collaboratively managing tasks

Describe the universe of tasks that Esther and Mitch manage?

Mitch's stuff is roughly categorized into two buckets:

• Work stuff * Calendering * Travel * Speaking engagements * Meetings * Board meetings * Shifting regular 1:1 meetings because of a conference * Planning lunch events (Al Gore, Jimmy Wales) * Planning Operations Group offsite event
• Non work stuff
  • Scheduling maintenance calls for house
  • Coodinating visits with kids
  • Chandler's knee surgery
  • Setup personal dinners * Deal with a variety of people
  • Family
  • Service providers
  • other "Esthers" in the world (ie. Greg, Freada's assistant)
  • OSAF staff

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What is the lifecycle of these tasks/projects?

Creation and Collection * 90% of the time Mitch emails or verbally talks to Esther * 10% of the time, the info and requests come from others ie: Lori, Freada * Esther might email her status list to Mitch for comments * Mitch might email the part of his todo list that is 'For Esther' to Esther

Esther's System

• Notebook - writes in a different color for each day, Writes down everything Mitch communicates to her verbally in their 1:1 meetings
• Esther reviews the notes regularly...Crosses out stuff that is done...Records progress on each task/mini-project in a different color pen

• Why Esther prefers paper
• Doesn't use a computer - afraid of data reliability issues
• Uses 4 computers - needs to access her task list from everywhere, keeping all 4 computers in sync would be a nightmare
• Notes are more agile, color-coding for task progress is crucial (allows her to differentiate between progress made on different days)
• Paper calendar - maintains her deadlines
  • Adds stickies that move from day to day - ie. If X calls, make sure to tell them Y, not sure when Y will happen
  • Flips forward to see what is coming up, always knows whats up for the next couple of weeks
  • Prints paper calendar until end of june
  • Flips forward a month at a time

• What about resource information?
• Urls for conferences - prints out logistical info and adds to a Project folder
• Always keeps a paper trail
• Has email folders as well
• archive email folders after conference has passed
• color codes stuff for a day - mini projects

• Esther used to print out her electronic calendar when she used )utlook - every 2-3 days
• Esther doesn't think she will give up the notebook and paper calendar in the near future

How often does Mitch ping Esther about the status of something

• Generally doesn't ping Esther for status updates because...
• They meet regularly - once a day
• Will PING her if something changes

What is on paper calendar vs iCal calendar

• Things on Esther's electronic calendar - things that Esther is doing at a specified time
• Things on Esther's paper calendar - due dates for tasks, more nebulous stuff
• Things on Mitch's electronic calendar - events todos for him as well as FYI type things (Freada's schedule, Conferences he might attend)

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Ted - Family calendar and task management

Describe the universe of information you need to keep track of as a household?

• Calendar stuff like...
• Saturday morning gymnastics for kids
• Mid-week swimming lessons
• Special discussion for Abigail's recital
• Social event with friends
• Reading groups (Julie's and Ted's)
• Ted travel - sometimes puts flight and hotel info in the event Notes field, but usually pass that stuff back and forth via email
• Tasks for weekend on calendar
• Add mulch to garden bed - Need to schedule a weekend to do it. Need to call around for quotes
• Housepainting project - Need to call around for quotes

How do you maintain these tasks?

• Ted has his own personal Work calendar in iCal
• Ted and Julie share a Family calendar
• Ted maintains personal task lists a la GTD in Omni Outliner
• Julie maintains a personal electronic calendar for Ted's benefit
• Julie maintains a paper calendar for herself - she puts paper stickies on it

How do you update each other on status?

• In person - in the evening at dinner
• Email each other (especially if the content of the update is electronic, ie. URLs)
• Ted does weekly review of personal task lists in Omni-ouliner

• Calendar - stuff that's related to a span of time - a specific block of time
• Todo list ends up in Omni-outliner
• Due dates - will be added in the text of the outline
• There is a way to set a date in the outline but Ted doesn't use that
• Ted records progress on tasks in the sub-header field of the task item

Do you keep track of stuff for the kids?

• Daughter takes piano lessons - Julie keeps track of stuff she needs - assignments
• Either Ted or Julie will keep track of stuff like this
• Ted uses Omni-outliner - no special tag for stuff for kids (ie: colors), just enters kid's name in the task description

Keeping track of progress of tasks

• House painting project
• Ad-hoc progress tracking: via email, verbal updates at dinner, Ted updates progress in Omni-outliner

• Most often, Ted and Julie share projects but split up tasks
• Ted doesn't maintain an @Julie agenda list

• Katie/Sheila send email to Nick/Jason while Nick/Jason are at work to remind them of tasks - they receive it in the wrong context, essentially ignore it
• Priscilla - can only get Jeremy to pay attention to household tasks by sending reminders to his work email
• Ted has separate work/email accounts that they manage separately

In addition to tasks, what other types of things do you keep track of as a household?

• Up until recently, didn't share contacts
• Would've been useful for xmas cards
• URLS...share via email
• Paint the house project - research is done mostly through phone calls
• Organize parties: List of candidates for guests

• Would be nice for keeping track of invitations for kids birthday parties as well

• Packing list
  • Sheila maintains one for Jason posted up in his office, but now he travels so much, he never has it,
  • John uses Helens
• Esther has a leaving the house list for Carl - Take out garbage, turn off lights, turn off heat, etc.

• Travel itineraries
  • Jason travels a lot, it would be nice if Sheila could drag the emails Jason sends her onto her calendar
  • Harder to keep track of household tasks too now that he travels so much and they have 2 homes in 2 cities. Trying to get him to clean out the refrigerator in Vancouver, but knows he's never going to do it.

Takeaways

• Tactile aspect of paper is hard to compete with. But ability to manage information collaboratively might make it worth it for some people who are currently stuck on paper. Reliability of paper or unreliability of computers is a big factor for some people.
• Paper interfaces and free-form lists (ie. Wiki, Omni-outliner) are better for fuzzy, vague projects (in the Black Box stage of a task's lifecycle).
• Electronic calendars and Bugzilla are better for recording discrete, well-defined information items (ie. scheduled appointments/meetings where you've made an
• There's a need for top-down planning (ie. Apps team Architecture Issues page) as well as bottom-up tracking of detailed tasks.
• Detailed tasks (ie. Bugzilla, Esther's day-by-day progress on mini-projects) grow out of big, fuzzy projects and are an indication of progress on those projects.
• Keeping people up-to-date on status is a major challenge and requires both a lot of face-to-face communication and email.
• The process of getting organized helps people make progress on their tasks/projects.

Design challenges for Chandler

• How do we connect the dots for users between top-down project planning and detailed tasks
• How do we keep everyone involved engaged and focused on the right tasks and issues
• How do we keep different views of shared information in sync (ie. Apps team Architecture page and related Bugzilla bugs and mailing list discussions)

Next actions

• Approach LPFI, Creative Commons and Berkeley for more interview subjects
• Follow up design sessions to try and map out these usage scenarios using Plausible Dashboard in 0.7