Sidebar component spec

Motivation

• Provide user with quick 1-touch access to frequently used (collections of) items and views.
• Allow user to organize navigation in their own way, breaking down traditional kind-based silo separations.
• Maintain easy access to kind-based groupings of navigation items.
• Users will still be able to perform all navigation from the file menu with the sidebar closed.

Structure

• See also OrganizeDesign and FilteredShares

• 2 classes of collections
  • OOTB Basic collections: Dashboard, Inbox, Outbox, Archives, Junk, Trash
    • Users cannot rename, delete, remove from the sidebar, reorder, create or edit rules on OOTB collections
    • OOTB collections are not affected by the Kind filters (see below)
    • Dashboard is our version of the iTunes Library, an All collection of all active items
    • Inbox and Outbox contain all messages and will not accept any items that are not messages. [OI^?] Should we give users the option to have a separate Inbox for every account?
    • Items in Archives, Junk and Trash do not also exist in Dashboard or any other collection
      • Users can assign collections to items in these collections via the See also section in the detail view
      • Archive, Junk and Trash items can be uni-directional members of other collections. You can see what collections the item belongs to, but you can't see the item from the collection.
      • Users can sort Archive, Junk and Trash items by a collection column in the Summary Table view.
      • If an item is taken out of Archive, Junk or Trash and restored to the Dashboard collection directly or via Inbox, Outbox or a user-defined collection, they are resurrected as first-class members of their assigned collections (as in you will be able to see them in the collection).
  • User-defined category or topic taxonomy or project list: Home, Work, Soccer, Vacation
    • Users can rename, delete, remove from the sidebar, reorder, and create and edit rules on user-defined collections
    • User-defined collections are affected by the Kind filters

• Kind filters: Part Filter part Collection. Part Verb part Noun.
• Kind filter as a Verb: All, Messages, Tasks, Calendar, Notes
  • Kind filters filter the sidebar for collections containing items of the selected kind
  • Kind filters filter collections for items of the selected kind
  • Kind filters are orthogonal to collections
• Kind filter as a Collection: All, Mailbox, Taskpad, Calendar, Notepad
  • Kind filters are themselves destinations: Mailbox, Calendar, Taskpad, Notepad
  • Collections selected when visiting a Kind destination persist between sessions
  • Kind filtered collections are themselves collections that can be shared as Kind-filtered Shares
  • However, Kind-filtered collections cannot have inclusions and exclusions
  • Two ways to think of hierarchy
    • Each Kind destination has a set of Collections OR
    • Each Collection has a set of 4 Kind destinations
  • 1 Share per 1 Collection

• Sidebar_Structure.gif:
  

• Sidebar_Orthogonal.gif:
  

Use cases

• Coriander divides her life into 4 categories. Home, Work, Badminton and Whatever
• Coriander uses a silo-based PIM to organize her life.
• She uses all four silos in her PIM: Email, Calendar, Tasks and Notes.
• In each of of her four silos, she's created 3 folders: Home, Work, and Badminton.
• The Whatever folder exists only in her Email silo, because that is the only kind of Whatever material she has.

Coriander starts to use Chandler. She re-creates her four categories as collections: Home, Work, Badminton and Whatever. She files her items faithfully just as before.

However, once in a while she feels nostalgia for her formerly silo-ed world. So she uses the Kind filters to browse just Messages, Events, Tasks or Notes.

When she clicks on Messages, all four collections appear. When she clicks on Events, Tasks and Notes, the Whatever collection disappears just like old times.

She can think of her information as being organized into four categories as four collections that cross all silos. OR She can think of her information as being organized into four silos, each with its own set categories or collections. OR She can think of each of her four collections as being comprised of four parts: a Mailbox, a Calendar, a Taskpad and a Notepad.

Wireframes and storyboards

• sidebar_001m20040827.gif:
  

Feature list

.4

For 0.4, from an end user's perspective, we want to treat a collection to be indivisible from the view. i.e. a collection is always associated to one and only one view, and a view is always associated to one and only one collection.

• OOTB collections
• All
• In
• Out
• Calendar Share Demo [OI^?] Do we still need this if we can do FilteredShares

• Kind filter bar
• Select kinds: All, Mailbox, Taskpad, Calendar, Notepad
  • Only 1 kind filter can be selected at a time (John may have infrastructure to support multi-select in .4)
  • The ALL filter is selected OOTB
  • Kind filter filters sidebar for collection containing items of the selected kind
    • • Will not actually change the number of collections in the Sidebar for .4
      • [NOT SURE] All is the default collection selected when clicking on a Kind filter for the first time

• Adding collections to the sidebar
• File menu item
• All collections are mixed kind collections
• No collections types (ie. Mailboxes, Calendars, Projects)

• Adding items to collections
• DnD items into collections in the sidebar

• In-place editing of collection names (Katie mentioned the possibility of locking the OOTB collections to prevent users from changing their names.)

IP-A status Following features likely to slip 0.4:

• poof animation for collection removal
• No Junk & Trash
• Items & Collections are only removed not deleted

Beyond .4

• OOTB collections
• Dashboard, In, Out, Archive, Junk, Trash
• Divider between OOTB collections and user-defined collections

• Kind-filter
• Kind filter actually shortens the list of user-defined collections in the sidebar to just collections containing items of the selected kind
• Kind filters only work on user-defined collections. OOTB collections are always present.
• Option to Show all collections
• Clicking on the Calendar Kind filter automatically opens up the mini-calendar browser and calendar summary view
• Persistent selection of collections across sessions. Chandler remembers the collections selected the last time the user clicked on that Kind filter.
• Cmd / Ctrl Click kind filters to combine filters
• Clicking on All deselects all other filters

• Tri-modal selection of sidebar items
  • Click sidebar item to select and switch collections
  • Cmd / Ctrl Click sidebar item to temporarily multiple select
  • Click light grey selection icon to the left of the sidebar item to persistently select
  • Click activated selection icon to the left of the sidebar item to de-select
  • Works similarly to check-off boxes for task items where clicking on the task item doesn't check off the task

• Reordering sidebar items

• Adding collections
• Add button at the bottom of the sidebar
• Click and hold Add button to bring up Collections manager
• DnD collections from Collections manager into Sidebar and vice versa
• DnD clusters and collections listed in Detail view into Sidebar

• Removing and Deleting collections
• Select collection and hit Delete on keyboard
• Select collection and click Delete in Toolbar
• DnD collection to Trash
  • Dialog pops up: Do you want to Remove, Delete or Delete this collection and its contents?

• Display number of "unread" items in each sidebar item

• Open and close sidebar with navigation
• When you close the sidebar, the Kind filter buttons remain in a vertical column (ie. Explorer for Mac, Entourage)
• Other buttons might be: Dashboard view, In, Out

• Sidebar_ALL_mode.gif:
  

• Sidebar_OOTB_Taskpad.gif:
  

• Sidebar_Customized_Calendar.gif:
  

Application bar demo

• Behavior
• All, Mail, Events, Tasks toggle
• One must always be selected
• Only one can be selected at a time
• Selections in the sidebar persist when user switches between Application areas

• all.gif:
  

• mail.gif:
  

• events.gif:
  

• tasks.gif:
  

Kind filter demo

• Behavior
• Mail, Task, Calendar toggle
• Select a filter twice to turn it off
• Collection selection persist per Kind selection
• Search searches all collections and displays # of search results in each collection in the sidebar
• Collections containing no search results are greyed out
• Displays search results of currently selected collection / kind filter
• Users can only share collections. Filter and Search settings don't apply. This design assumes that if the Kind selectors are presented more as filter settings, users will understand the "can only share whole collections" limitation more easily.

• alternate_nofilter.gif:
  

• alternate_mail.gif:
  

• alternate_tasks.gif:
  

• alternate_events.gif:
  

• alternate_search.gif:
  

Workflow descriptions for P1 use cases

• Reading new mail

1. Select All mode
2. Select All my items (automatically selected OOTB)

1. Select All mode
2. Select Received

1. Select Mail mode
2. Select All my mail (automatically selected OOTB)

1. Select Mail mode
2. Select Received

• Writing new mail New mail appears as a draft

1. In the All mode, in All my items
2. In the All mode, in "Sent" (aka Outbox, name is an [OI^?])
3. In the Mail mode, in All my mail
4. In the Mail mode, in "Sent"

• Scheduling an event for myself

1. Select Calendar mode
2. Select All my events (automatically selected OOTB)
3. D-click in calendar summary view to create a new event in-place

1. Click new button in toolbar and select "New event"
2. Adds new event item to the All my items collection in the All mode

1. Click new button in toolbar and select "New invite"
2. Adds new event / message item to the All my items collection in the All mode
3. Adds new event / message item to the "Sent" collection in the All mode
4. Adds new event / message item to the "Sent" collection in the Mail mode

• Creating new tasks New task appears

1. In the All mode, in All my items
2. In the Task mode, in All my tasks

• Reviewing/editing my calendar

1. Select Calendar mode
2. Select All my events (automatically selected OOTB)

• Searching for mail

1. Type search term in search box
2. Summary view displays search results for the selected collection
3. # of search results appear for all collections (ie. 13) in the sidebar
4. Collections containing (0) search results are greyed out

• Cleaning up items (e.g. deleting or junking items)

1. Junk and Trash collections are accessible for all application modes