[SFF]

After using OF2 for several days now, I wanted to offer my thoughts on the decision to depict flagged tasks by coloring the check circles orange. In my opinion, there is not enough distinction between the orange used for "flagged" and the yellow used for "due soon", especially when a task is both flagged and due soon - the half orange, half yellow circle just doesn't offer enough visual separation to be able to easily note that the task is flagged. Lists of tasks, some of which are flagged and some of which are due soon, are also difficult to differentiate, especially when scrolling through these lists.

My suggestion would be to either use a completely different color for "flagged" (blue?), or even better, show an orange flag icon inside the circle (similar to how the 3 dots are currently used to show a repeating task), and use color only for Due and Overdue.

(and not to hijack my own thread), but since I'm talking about visual differentiation, I'd like a bit more contrast between deferred tasks and active ones--maybe a bit lighter gray for deferred?

Thanks again to the Omnigroup for your great customer service!

[enigma2k]

Yes this was also my first thought that yellow and orange are too similar and blue was also the first color that came to my mind for the circle flag color.

Please don't put an additional flag into the circle, this would just overcomplicate this wonderful simplistic design OF2 currently offers.

Apparently it's a holiday souvenir of the Ginza line in the Tokyo metro.

https://twitter.com/fet/status/380463862165684224

I would personally add that this is generally a very good redesign, but I do wonder whether a circle thick enough to draw attention amidst all the noise and bustle of a busy metro station isn't a little too thick and attention-seeking for a small screen.

Particularly when there are multiple colored circles on a phone screen, that's fairly strong visual competition for the adjacent text, and seems to come a little adrift from Apple's principle of UI 'deference' to user data.

The metro signs seem a very reasonable and interesting source of inspiration, but I think that adaptation for context, medium, and cognitive efficiency may work better than decorative copy-paste. Slightly thinner and less obtrusive circles would work better for me.

(Perhaps others respond differently – I know some people like to be 'hit over the head' by bright colors to warn of impending due or elapsed due dates :-)

Generally, however, a really encouraging redesign, I think.

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Perhaps the difficulty of distinguishing at a glance between flagging and time status could be eased by reserving the Tokyo Metro symbols for timetabling (due/soon), and using something with a distinct profile for flagging.

(Even, perhaps, a simple flag icon like the one in iOS7 Mail ?)

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[psidnell]

I like the idea of combining due/overdue/flagged/repeat into the circle, but find the colours a little too similar to always see the difference, particularly in daylight.

If due/overdue always occupied the bottom of the circle and flagged always occupied the top - rather than either of them filling it than perhaps it would be clearer.

[Lizard]

Originally Posted by RobTrew

(Even, perhaps, a simple flag icon like the one in iOS7 Mail ?)

In my iOS 7 mail, flagged items get an orange dot...

Originally Posted by Lizard

In my iOS 7 mail, flagged items get an orange dot...

The flag icon at the top right of iOS7 Mail - in the toolbar.

I do think though, since you mention them, that those orange dots – small, unobtrusive, single outer edge – are good exemplars of UI deference.

The Tokyo Metro symbols – large perimeter, thick fills, two edges – are a bit self-advertising.

[spwalker]

Originally Posted by SFF

After using OF2 for several days now, I wanted to offer my thoughts on the decision to depict flagged tasks by coloring the check circles orange. In my opinion, there is not enough distinction between the orange used for "flagged" and the yellow used for "due soon", especially when a task is both flagged and due soon - the half orange, half yellow circle just doesn't offer enough visual separation to be able to easily note that the task is flagged.

I second this. Trying to squeeze this much meta data about tasks into the circle, along with several other elements of the UI in OF2 for iPhone, led me to delete OF2 and move back to OF1. In my opinion the new features in OF2 don't outweigh the problems that the new UI presents to my daily workflow. OF1 may be outdated in appearance, but its UI doesn't make managing my tasks more challenging.

[fairydreams]

I didn't like the doughnuts to start off with, but they are definitely growing on me.

Now I think the double-flavour doughnut actually makes sense.

The coloured ring is a hand waving at the back saying "don't forget or ignore me", their first priority is raising awareness, the second is the specific awareness: important vs late.

I think the way it is implemented does this job very effectively and, now I have grown used to it, I find it very helpful and easier than two separate indicators.

Originally Posted by fairydreams

The coloured ring is a hand waving at the back saying "don't forget or ignore me", their first priority is raising awareness, the second is the specific awareness: important vs late.

.... now I have grown used to it ...

It's an interesting mnemonic, and helpful of you to share it with us.

But does good information design impose the need to devise and learn mnemonics ?

One can always learn and get used to things – with time, Morse code or the Chinese writing system can become second nature, and look completely transparent and meaningful, but the quality of UI design = (what it makes visible ) divided by (the effort it imposes).

If the effort imposed on the user increases (colours have to be distinguished in bright light, mnemonics have to be devised and shared, attention to text gets distracted by unnecessarily large and saturated UI elements etc etc) or if information visibility decreases (flags are conflated with timing), then, quite simply, the quality of UI is lowered.

The little coloured progress dots are excellent. The thick and over-loaded Tokyo metro fruitloops are not. They can, with time, be learned, and mnemonics can be devised and shared. But good UI does that work for the user. Weak UI depends on the user to do the work.

The first thing that hits the eye when you look at an action list should be the actions.

Visually checking the action status should not require mnemonics, impose a period of learning, or become more difficult in strong light.