badge count worries
 

Hi Folks!
Some feedback on the new badge count feature:

From the 1.0.3 release notes thread:
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I just realized I forgot to document one of the changes in 1.0.3: the badge now counts the total number of overdue and due soon actions, rather than showing either the overdue count or the due soon count (without any indication of which it was showing).
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This new feature caused a lot of confusion with me this morning. I think it is counter-intuitive in several ways:
- overdue and due soon items are separated in OF in all other views, in the iPhone version as well as the desktop version
- the red color is used only for overdue items in all other views, in the iPhone version as well as the desktop version
- The unusually high number of red (for me: Screaming) items cannot be found in the OF lists. The icons badge count and the list information inside OF do not correspond.
- Furthermore it can look quite depressing (at least for me) ;-)

IMHO the older approach of showing overdue items number first and showing due soon only when there are no overdue items was much better:
- it produced a useful priorization
- it provided more insight in the most important tasks right now instead of showing a big blob of many items to do, thus focusing on the core items

I'd recommend using the previous way of visualizing badge counts with one change:
- badge count on the icon is orange instead of red when due soon items are shown

This would dissolve the issue of unclear badge counts (overdue and due soon both shown in red) and make for a more focused and clear information for the user.

Alternatively if there are other reasons and/or the majority of users likes to have the totalled badge count please please please do not use red but a different color to visualize the badge.

The bottom line is:
Yesterday the badge count on the OF icon showed how much pressing things are left today.
Now the badge count on the OF icon tells me nothing but the fact that i have a lot of work to do (which is much less information for me, as well as frustrating. :-D ).

I hope there are others that have similar thoughts.
Best regards
Silvan

Unfortunately, even though what you describe would be the ideal, it's impossible, because Apple give no way for developers to change the badge colour, which is fixed at red.

That means that under the old system, if you had 3 overdue actions and 10 due soon, and then completed your overdue ones, your screaming red badge would change from 3 to 2 to 1, to [B]10[/B], with no indication as to why. That's surely quite scary, and not what you want?

I think what we have now is the best compromise for the time being. The better solution, which I hope OG will implement soon, would be an option for the user to decide whether he wanted the (always red) badge to show due soon, overdue, flagged, a combination of those, or none.

[QUOTE=MacBerry;45006]Unfortunately, even though what you describe would be the ideal, it's impossible, because Apple give no way for developers to change the badge colour, which is fixed at red.

That means that under the old system, if you had 3 overdue actions and 10 due soon, and then completed your overdue ones, your screaming red badge would change from 3 to 2 to 1, to [B]10[/B], with no indication as to why. That's surely quite scary, and not what you want?

I think what we have now is the best compromise for the time being. The better solution, which I hope OG will implement soon, would be an option for the user to decide whether he wanted the (always red) badge to show due soon, overdue, flagged, a combination of those, or none.[/QUOTE]

Ah, i did not know the colour is fixed.

Then the icon should show no badge when there are no overdue items. I do not see a sensible way to show the due soon item count then.

Your proposal for a configurable badge setting is a good idea.

Thanks for the reply
Silvan

an option would be great, because a lot of us get a sense of satisfaction knowing they have completed everything for today (thus nothing on the badge) and not show the numbers for things that are really in fact due in the future (due soon) I personally do not like the due soon to show up on my badge, always makes me feel like I'm behind, ha ha

I agree - I do not like the combined badge count (overdue AND due soon). It means very little to me.

I preferred the older method of only showing the overdue items on the badge. That way I know what I HAVE to get done today. Then after I've completed those items, I can move on to working in a standard GTD way - choose a context and work on available actions or next actions.

In his book, David Allen stresses that you should only place the items on "today's calendar" (his terms - we would call it Overdue in OmniFocus parlance) that are ABSOLUTELY DUE TODAY. After that, you should choose what to work on based on:

1. Context
2. Time available
3. Energy available
4. Priority

@beharkey

I know the badge can be turned off on other apps, netnewswire for iphone has that option, I'm just not sure if it can be "selective" like you and I want, I'm right there with you on the GTD comments above, that's why it bothers me so much.....

I second the idea for an option for the badge count in the settings panel.

Adding an option for whether the badge should include "due soon" items is something that we could do. If you want this, please send feedback to the support email address so that your request will be correlated with any others - that's generally the best way to help us evaluate the demand for specific features.

This problem is also exacerbated (for me) by the fact that the "Due Soon" count shows [i]unavailable[/i] actions from sequential projects that have a due date (ie, where the [i]project[/i] has a due date which is "Due Soon", but the actions themselves do not).

This creates an artificially large "Due Soon" count. I realize that realistically, all actions [i]are[/i] "Due Soon" in order to complete the entire project, but it artificially (and frighteningly) increases the count into the [i]hundreds[/i] in some cases (think seven or eight projects with 15-20 sequential actions per project).

Back on the subject at hand, however, I'd also question whether it's desirable to show the badge [i]at all[/i] for some users.... OF can only update this badge when it's running, so the number can quickly become "stale" if you're not running OF on a regular basis (ie, actions that become "Due" while OF is not running will not show an updated count). Obviously, most of us die-hards probably [i]do[/i] run OF fairly regularly, but I can see how not having a number showing up might lead one to a false sense of security that everything was done -- particularly for those users who don't fully understand that the number will not update when OF is not actually running.

I'd suggest a configuration setting with three options: [i]Show None, Show Overdue, Show Overdue & Due Soon[/i].