Chandler Project

Trees abound in

trees prevail

they clearly limit us

Semi-lattices are non-polar, where do you start, where do you end?

Reality and the human brain's ability to grok it are far more complex than a tree

dumbing down isn't always a bad thing

you don't really understand something unless you can explain it in 5 words

Let's improve on the software

too strict, too dry, too simplistic

browse the same data via many different trees

visual information mapping hasn't already taken over the world

that break the tree

brains ARE really really good at seeing relationships

linear doublethink

stop-motion semi-lattice building

extremely adept at looking at the same data and reorganizing it into different trees in rapid succession

in one file cabinet, on one bookshelf, in one way

forcing us to look at our data

semi-lattii

Challenge: Find balance between trees

distorts the truth

expressive but often not communicative

same data in as many different kinds of trees as they want

start at any point in the tree

same data, different perspectives

rotate the tree

visual cues that seemed to burst forth with meaning begin to feel meaningless, random, disorienting

"watch" in "slow-motion" or user manipulated motion

future Chandler may have a richer graphical interface

different tree organizations of the same data

Overlaying the visualizations

composite semi-lattice

richness of semi-lattii

feed it to users in a way they can easily understand: trees

All parameters set in the browser are reflected in the Search bar

Saved rules

better than limiting users to a single tree

better than overwhleming users with a semi-lattice

"dumbing down" the data for the user

avoid UI shock via information overload

present users with the full-force and complexity of their information in a way that is understandable

possible, even within the confines of the 2-dimensional

easily walk from one tree to another

breaking away from hierarchy and how people used to hierarchies of folder are coping

http://weblog.edventure.com/blog/_archives/2004/4/19/36468.html

the freedom and amorphous-ness of a search-centric navigation paradigm

a little built in structure

Dashboard view / triage workflow as a point of entry

search to get within range

navigate using contextual clues to find the exact item

fixed hierarchies present a workflow bottlenck

we know what topic to file something under, but we don't know where that topic belongs in the hierarchy

pilers never bother to file

something new comes along to screw up the hierarchy

unwieldy taxonomies with duplication and confusion

Sometimes we don't know what we're looking for until we see it in context

brain's ability to use environmental clues to remember things

reply/forward etc icons in the top bar should go

the LATER section gives me that

I’m always assigning alarms to anything I don’t want to think about right now

my NOW section is much more manageable and I’m calmer

30 going at a time

a cross-collection view of all their data where the could process items regardless of what collections

what’s new across all of your collections without having to click on individual collections one-by-one

Dashboard collection in Chandler

ground for experimentation

no way to view items that are in the Dashboard but not in any other collections

saves me the trouble of having to leave the Chandler item I’m working with, find the GTD Projects List item, and then find my way back to the original item.

We also welcome and will actively help volunteers who want to write a GTD plug-in

Chandler shouldn’t be construed as an implementation of the GTD methodology or any other methodology

how to turn Goals into Next Actions

appreciate that there is a difference between the two

the GTD label actually scares people away.

people who knew about Chandler’s past association with GTD assumed they needed to subscribe to a particular way of doing things in order to succeed with the product

as Tasks (VTODOS)

NOW and LATER triage status will both be interpreted as “Not-Done”

Anytime events will look the same as All-day events

schedule for Today

don't lose track

browse your calendar

without having to actually go to your calendar

Who column always displays ‘Edited by’ when an item has been modified by a fellow subscriber

depending on whether the message is Inbound or Outbound

event dates usually trump all other dates

alarm date

display something even if it’s the wrong thing some of the time

separating these items into hard categories with totally different interfaces makes organization more, not less, difficult

(too) many interesting things

There's something wrong with the way data

doesn't flow between the tools we use to manage, process, organize our information

software should be modeled around information

fundamentally non-linear, non-binary nature of information work

processing and re-processing information to help you stay focused on the task(s) at hand

everything you can't and shouldn't be doing right now

many of the messages we send are really still drafts

too much copying and pasting

organized around your data and the semantics

not around which feature you used to create them

or over which transport protocol

Not around which file format

new Kinds of Items

designed to let you re-define what it means to be a PIM

personal definition of "Personal Information"

Extend the existing schema of Attributes

Information is the substance of their work and more information is the output of their work: Research, proposals, priorities, direction and decisions?

knowledge is gained and shared

how people actually work

(too) many interesting things

There's something wrong with the way data

doesn't flow between the tools we use to manage, process, organize our information

software should be modeled around information

technological barriers

too much copying and pasting

false assumption that information management tasks are binary

false assumption underlying most productivity software that information and the organizational structures needed to manage that information are essentially static

A lone email languishes for a long time in your Inbox and then all of a sudden, blooms into an unending thread which dies down

the thread is revived and mushrooms into a full scale project

Three weeks later

you barely give it a thought

the same workflow hiccups show up again and again

an information management environment with built-in workflows that mirror what people hack together

three basic workflows everybody seems to construct for themselves, regardless of what tools they use

varying degrees of complexity and automation

These three workflows however, need to exist independently of each other

no complicated rule-builder

push-button interface

always assume a need for iteration and change over time

Peeling the Onion

Allow Organization to Change and Flow

the entire gamut of organizational affordances

Tagging

Filing, Rules, et cetera

won't ever be asked to decide between them

turn it into a Custom Attribute

Add semantics to a Tag

Custom Attribute

Drag a Tag or a Cluster to the sidebar

a Cluster: a way to thread items together, a way to reflect dependencies

Group collaboration systems exist in parallel with personal communication tools

does not scale down to work for small groups

the majority of the significant emails we send are sent while still in a draft-state

Future

a well-defined end-user information model

by modeling the user experience around how people work today and the substance of that work, we can be more than just another software tool and instead aspire to be a system for information management: A smarter way to work. A better environment for collaboration

We want Chandler to be able to talk to other applications

As we make Chandler's end-user information model richer, the number of interesting applications to talk to will increase. This is one of the many areas where we hope that people in the community will help increase Chandler's ability to talk to other applications

even more useful as that user pulls in other people to collaborate

We want happy users be successful evangelists for Chandler

web widgets that might be deployed in different contexts — iGoogle, Facebook, on an iPhone, etc.

widgets should be compelling to a new user who does not use the desktop, in addition to providing features that complement the desktop. Eventually, the widgets can be building blocks

misperception in the press

Being a CalDAV reference implementation is not a priority.

the Microsoft product with the most overlap with our design objectives is probably OneNote

web widgets (in the browser, on mobile devices and on the desktop)

not trying to be a GTD specific tool

Chandler’s philosophy is different enough from GTD that it would be misleading to call Chandler a GTD tool

Our best articulation of our core value to date is: Chandler is a way to manage and collaborate on ideas using: A List View built around the idea of the Triage Workflow A Calendar View Chandler Hub Sharing Service

the user problem we are serving is an emerging market

there isn’t a shared, public vocabulary to describe what we’re doing

Better product messaging so that people understand what ‘user problem’ we’re trying to solve and how we’re trying to solve it.

more ways to get data in and out

we will not be implementing CalDAV scheduling

We’re not looking to be a cheaper alternative to Outlook/Exchange. This means we’re not investing in support for free/busy-style scheduling. We’re not looking to be the ‘everyman’s’ version of Microsoft Project or Bug and Ticket-Tracking systems. This means we’re not investing in support for complex task and project management, e.g. task dependencies, tracking percent done, time estimates, robust support for assigning tasks, etc. We’re also not going to be implementing the GTD methodology.

sends and receives email

sent from other Chandler users

downloads messages via 3 IMAP folders

Add messages from your email client into special Chandler IMAP folders

to download them into Chandler where you can manage them as Chandler notes and events

What still needs to be done

Sync IMAP Flags and Read/Unread status

Unlike "regular" email, you can edit and re-send Chandler emails

current target screen size - 1024x768 pixels

should still be usable at 800x600 pixels

the application