Re: Feature requests

On Jun 25, 2004, at 5:25 AM, Sixer wrote:

> I'm not sure if this is the place this should go, I apologize if not.
>
> 1) I'd like to be able to disable the status column. I use colors to
> determine what status users are in so the status column is a bit
> overkill to me.
[snip]
> 5) Ever thought of implementing alternating row colors in the
> buddy list?
>
> You guys are doing a wonderful job.

Kind of makes me think of the iTunes interface. It has a contextual 
menu for the columns that allows for showing or hiding each column. 
Very convenient and easier to show/hide a single column than a checkbox 
in a dialog. The Auto Size Column and Auto Size All Columns options 
would be nice, too, which I sorely miss. There's nothing like automatic 
narrowing to get the window contents smaller to make Zooming more 
effective.

Hmm, but what if it went further? What if the Groups were listed like 
playlists instead of with disclosure triangles? There'd be something 
like a Library playlist for listing every buddy (perhaps named All 
Buddies) and separate service group lists for locating buddies by 
service for each account. And Online and Offline groups for quick 
reference. Perhaps each group could be optional. Other groups would be 
user defined and rearrangeable (as they are now), unlike in iTunes 
where the user defined playlists are automatically alphabetized.

The equivalent area where songs are in iTunes would contain a list of 
Buddies with the alternating row color for easier reading. The columns 
would be service, buddy name, and status. The Service and Buddy column 
wouldn't be rearrangeable, similar in practice to how the number and 
song columns in iTunes can't be moved. The Buddy column would remain 
visible at all times and the other two can be shown/hidden with the 
contextual menu. With the service and buddy columns locked down, 
there'd be nowhere to move the status column unless there were other 
columns, so none of the columns would be rearrangeable. But that seems 
a bit extreme, so maybe instead have all columns rearrangeable and 
require only the Buddy column to remain visible.

Naturally, there'd be an idea for separate Name (or ID) and Alias 
columns for the buddy names, perhaps with the Alias column contents 
editable. Then the user can decide to have ID or Alias or both by using 
the contextual menu, and whichever order by rearranging. Though, with 
multiple columns for buddy identification, perhaps only require at 
least one column remain visible (doesn't have to be a name column), 
i.e. the last visible column couldn't be unselected so the window 
wouldn't be empty and mysterious.

Other information could be associated with each buddy and easily viewed 
in new columns. For instance, how about a Relation property? Kind of 
like Genre, with Family/Friend/Classmate/Church or whatever the user 
defined. This could be useful for smart groups or sorting columns, such 
as a smart group of all buddies whose Relation contain Family, or maybe 
Friend and Jujitsu. A user would simply type more than one in the 
Relation field and it would be simply a contained match. Another 
property might be Location, intended to contain something like Country 
and province/state, but could have anything. There's no requirements of 
exactly what a user puts in the field, but it's there for easy grouping 
and organizing when sorting columns or using smart groups.

Examples of usefulness: maybe you want to arrange to meet everyone you 
know in town at a local theatre or park, or maybe you want to chat with 
everyone in your club/class. Being able to sort/group buddies in this 
way (location, interest, etc.) would simplify knowing who is online and 
therefore who to invite to a group chat. No need to limit a buddy to a 
single group or view multiple instances of the same buddy in multiple 
groups.

Of course, one of the options of a smart group would be by Status Type, 
so one of the criteria could be 'Status Type is not offline', which 
means the group would automatically update as matching buddies sign 
on/off. This associates the option for viewing online/offline buddies 
with a custom group instead of all groups all of the time. Just a small 
example of how smart groups can also become custom views, hence 
customized usefulness per task, without having to switch options all of 
the time.

Extra buddy info for organizing wouldn't need to rely on each service 
to be able to store such info because in this case Fire is providing 
the ability to organize data. Giving the extra properties non-specific 
names (e.g. Location) makes the stored info rather innocuous and 
harmless, and allows the user to decide on what details and how it 
would be most useful for grouping.

Ideally, it'd go a step further than the iTunes, iPhoto, etc interfaces 
by allowing the Groups list area to be hidden, which would allow for 
the Buddies window to be nice and narrow. Hmm, a drawer for the Groups 
list might be okay and could be toggled from the toolbar or Cmd-Shift-G 
shortcut (and renaming "New Group Chat" to Cmd-Shift-N, variation of 
"New Chat" shortcut for consistency). Or maybe if the vertical resize 
bar for the groups list was in the style of the Finder's sidebar in 
which a double click on the resize bar opens or closes the group list 
area, and then that'd only be a negligible few extra pixels in width. 
And the shortcut could still be used, too. Though, a click on the Zoom 
button afterwards may be necessary for the window to be more readable 
or more narrow, depending on the window size.

This similarity with other apps would make doing certain tasks more 
familiar and hence intuitive, such as customizing a list of buddies and 
info (service, name, alias, status, relation, etc.), or creating and 
managing groups, or locating buddies to IM, or organizing buddies 
(associating interests, location, and info).

Hmm, probably sounds like a major change, but it's mostly just the 
Buddy window and that would look the same when the group listing is 
collapsed. The extra buddy properties are actually more of a bonus for 
organizing and remains behind the scenes unless the user wants to view 
the columns.

Something like this would still allow for a small Buddy window. 
Imagine: you could have just the Alias column showing, auto size the 
column for the perfect width, Zoom the window, and then it'd be smaller 
than the current Buddy window because it wouldn't have a disclosure 
triangle and the drawer would be closed. Even using a vertical resize 
bar for accessing the groups wouldn't take more space than the 
disclosure triangle, but that's not the point. That point is really 
about nobody having to worry about the Buddy window becoming bigger 
than it is now.

An IM to a buddy could easily be opened using the keyboard even if the 
buddy isn't visible in the Buddy window. Simply use the keyboard 
shortcut to reveal the groups (if necessary) which moves the selection 
to the groups, use the arrow keys to select the group, tab into the 
buddies list, arrow down to the buddy and hit return. Using the mouse 
would also be easier than now because a whole line of text can be 
clicked to open a group instead of just a disclosure triangle.

The disclosure triangles have been a nice interface, but they're not 
vital. Currently, the groups in the buddy list can seem too separating 
for merely listing who's online. There are certain circumstances where 
groups are useful to see when viewing who's online, such as noting 
which members of a club are online. In that case, I'd be fine viewing 
just that group and no others, or a larger list sorted by group. 
However, the size and location of the disclosure triangle makes 
showing/hiding the groups feel like a challenge of mouse pointer 
accuracy when I'm in a hurry, and having them all open feels 
overwhelming when I just want one group open to find someone.

In addition to sorting by clicking on column title, there could be an 
optional toolbar pop-up item for sorting by a particular column so the 
sorted column wouldn't have to be visible. A horizontal dividing line 
(black and a couple pixels thick) could help indicate the similarities 
in the sort. For example, after sorting by service the thin divider 
lines would visually delineate the sort without the need to have the 
service column visible for reading, and the sections would be 
recognizable by content.

And of course, an optional search box in the toolbar could make it easy 
to quickly find all buddies matching text in all buddy properties such 
as ID, Alias, Relation, Location, etc. As in iTunes, it can become a 
sub-search for a smart group: the smart group is the main search 
criteria, and then the toolbar search box allows for quick 
sub-searches.

Admittedly, all of these ideas are just variations of what's available 
in other apps, but that helps make such an interface familiar and easy 
to use. Keeping the interface tight and clean (similar to the way it is 
now) combined with added flexibility and control over grouping and 
sorting buddies allows for ease of use per task and lets everybody 
powerfully customize their views for their needs.

So with the extra info associated with buddies, it's no longer just 
each buddy in a single group, or having the same buddy (duplicates) in 
multiple groups and sometimes seeing all the duplicates. Instead, this 
focuses on custom groups of buddies based on association of single or 
multiple criteria. Sort of like circles or cliques of friends, and how 
they overlap each other like unions of sets, but perhaps in ways we 
didn't realize before, which might suggest and encourage new cliques to 
form which creates a tighter bond amongst the whole. And of course, 
this leads to more communication through IM.

Being able to have multiple custom views (through the use of smart 
groups) allows for the Buddy window to be set up by task. Different 
possible lists include: list of buddies in a club; list of buddies in 
town; list of buddies in a project; perhaps another club, timezone, or 
project; list of family members; list of family members in town. 
Associated tasks could be: chatting about the upcoming tournament; 
chatting about getting together for LAN game; chatting about a family 
get-together; chatting about a carpooling to a local volunteer event. 
Each task can be aided by having a simplified, custom view of the 
potential people to invite into a group chat. Such a view can help with 
making a decision of when to chat to who.

The Buddy window becomes almost infinitely useful for any chatting task 
without becoming overwhelming because everything else is hidden out of 
the way by user choice. And with settings stored with the group, 
everything is changed with a single click on the group or smart group 
instead of the several clicks that may be required in preferences and 
the toolbar and such.

Well, hmm, just an idea or two...


--  Thom



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