Contacts Usability Gap is Frustating!

[dlipetz]

I purchased Agenda One the very day it was released for use on my Cingular 3125. Having used Agenda Fusion on the PPC platform, I was very excited to see a release for the WM54 smartphone platform.

While I readily admit that I probably use less than 20% of Agenda One's comprehensive feature set, I have found that using Agenda One's contacts application is more keystroke intensive and less functional than the standard contacts app in WM5 for the single most important function on a phone - making a call!

In the standard WM5 contacts app, you simply find the contact, use the right/left arrows to select which number you want (work, home, mobile, txt, email, etc.) and press Send. The phone then dials the number you selected. Additionally, the selected phone number remains the default for that contact the next time it is accessed. Makes plenty of sense to me and works fast.

In Agenda One, you find the contact (no more or less difficult than the standard contacts app), then you have to press OK to view the contact details, then you have to select the number you want to dial, then you have to press Send. This process is too time consuming for me and makes the standard contacts app much more appealling.

To make matters even more frustrating, the next time you go to Agenda One contacts, the last search results are still displayed and you must first perform a clear search before looking for the next contact! And on top that, the End key does not back you out of screens like it does in virtually all other apps.

Considering the degree of customization that Agenda One offers, perhaps I have overlooked a configuration change that can be made to change the behavior of the application as I've described. I hope so, because I will not use Agenda One contacts until the process of making a phone call has been simplified - after all, that's what my phone is used for 99% of the time.

That aside, I would like Developer One to consider changing the contacts app (or least make it a configurable oiption) so that it behave more like the standard WM5 contacts app as I have described above.

Am I missing anything?

[billw]

I totally agree. I also moved from Agenda Fusion (having had all the prev versions) and I find the contacts app in Agenda One too difficult to use.

- Please make it easier to search without having to clear the previous contents
- Allow the left and right toggle buttons to move between the different contact numbers/emails.

Also, another few navigation upgrades for PocketPc users:

1) When you press the select key to view an item in the agenda, please can you us this as a toggle to close the screen. eg when you are viewing an item in day view - press select to show the view and select again to switch back.

2) Is these any wany you can use a compressed mode just for to-do items. I don't need a multi-line display becase if it's one colour then it's future, another colour and it's today and another for overdue - but compressing to one line would give much more real estate on the today screen.

3) on the day view can you colour the heading when the day is today's date - if you move back and forth you forget which is today (Fusion does this)

4) I have seen others asking for cut/copy and paste. This is a really useful feature that is muissing but is in the std WM5 calendar. I ppreciate why you have dropped drag and drop, but the abilit to copy appointments or move them is really useful. I know you can just change the date in edit mode, but it's not the same. If I know I want to move an appointment, I used to "cut" it and then find a free slot to paste it.

5) If you assign a category to a contact anniversary or birthday, it doesn't appear in the calendar display - I assume it should.

Apart from this, I am much prefering this to Agenda Fusion - it's quicker and does what I want rather than a load of un-used features.

Thanks
Bill

[Alex_DevOne]

In the standard WM5 contacts app, you simply find the contact, use the right/left arrows to select which number you want (work, home, mobile, txt, email, etc.) and press Send. The phone then dials the number you selected. Additionally, the selected phone number remains the default for that contact the next time it is accessed. Makes plenty of sense to me and works fast.

In Agenda One, you find the contact (no more or less difficult than the standard contacts app), then you have to press OK to view the contact details, then you have to select the number you want to dial, then you have to press Send. This process is too time consuming for me and makes the standard contacts app much more appealling.

We are still making refinements to the Contacts view. As long you did not use the search function to find a contact, (such as scrolling to a contact) you can left right navigate to change contact methods as well. The contact method you select will be the default contact method the next time.

You can also do all the navigation with the nav pad/button once the contact is found. Press nav button to select, use nav pad to pick a number, use nav button to dial.


the next time you go to Agenda One contacts, the last search results are still displayed and you must first perform a clear search before looking for the next contact! And on top that, the End key does not back you out of screens like it does in virtually all other apps.

We now have a Menu - Clear Search Option in the Contacts view.

Our search is also different from the built in Contacts view in that when Smart Search is enabled we search all contact methods and not just the default method.

[billw]

We are still making refinements to the Contacts view. As long you did not use the search function to find a contact, (such as scrolling to a contact) you can left right navigate to change contact methods as well. The contact method you select will be the default contact method the next time.

You can also do all the navigation with the nav pad/button once the contact is found. Press nav button to select, use nav pad to pick a number, use nav button to dial.


I am not sure if I have missed something but the contacts search doesn't seem to work like this on my FujitsuSiemens Loox N560.

If I find a contact, even the first one on the list without doing any searching or scrolling, I cannot use the left/right nav buttons to change the contact method. The buttons do nothing

Also, If I press the Nav centre button it shows me the detail of the contact (which looks like the built in contacts app). If I hold the button instead I briefly get a menu that pops up with options - Copy Contact, Beam Contact, Delete Contact, Assign Category, Show Address in Map, Navigate To. There is no dial option (which I would normally use to dial my phone via bluetooth). I also cannot select anything from the popup as once it has appeared the screen then goes into the normal contacts detail screen.

Does this sound like what it is supposed to be doing?

Thanks
Bill

[posprg]

On this topic would ever consider adding a popup keyboard like what is used in Ineosoft Addressbook for searching contacts? The standard input just does not work very well and this would fit will all the one handed operations that Agenda One offers. I use a PPC 6700 and make calls all day long and have to agree that currently even the built in contacts is faster.

[Alex_DevOne]

I am not sure if I have missed something but the contacts search doesn't seem to work like this on my FujitsuSiemens Loox N560.

If I find a contact, even the first one on the list without doing any searching or scrolling, I cannot use the left/right nav buttons to change the contact method. The buttons do nothing

Also, If I press the Nav centre button it shows me the detail of the contact (which looks like the built in contacts app). If I hold the button instead I briefly get a menu that pops up with options - Copy Contact, Beam Contact, Delete Contact, Assign Category, Show Address in Map, Navigate To. There is no dial option (which I would normally use to dial my phone via bluetooth). I also cannot select anything from the popup as once it has appeared the screen then goes into the normal contacts detail screen.

Does this sound like what it is supposed to be doing?

Thanks
Bill
My comments to dlipetz were based on dlipetz running Agenda One on a Cingular 3125 which is a Smartphone and you are running it on a FujitsuSiemens Loox N560 which is a Pocket PC phone. Dialing works a bit differently on the Pocket PC Phones . We will take a look into ways that we can make dialing a bit easier on both Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms.

[briandhuff]

We now have a Menu - Clear Search Option in the Contacts view.
I like this, is there a way we can make this an Option to select in the settings instead of having to hit Menu - Clear Search? It would make things SOOOO Much nicer.

[dlipetz]

We are still making refinements to the Contacts view. As long you did not use the search function to find a contact, (such as scrolling to a contact) you can left right navigate to change contact methods as well. The contact method you select will be the default contact method the next time.

You can also do all the navigation with the nav pad/button once the contact is found. Press nav button to select, use nav pad to pick a number, use nav button to dial.


We now have a Menu - Clear Search Option in the Contacts view.

Our search is also different from the built in Contacts view in that when Smart Search is enabled we search all contact methods and not just the default method.
I would think it's fair to say that I use the search function (pressing keys to spell last name) nearly 100% of the time to find a contact, so for me it is imperative that the described functionality works on contacts found via the search function.

I don't see the logic in keeping the last search results active. If I wanted to call the same person again, I would simply press the dial button and pick from the last of calls. Using Agenda One contacts forces me to perform your Clear Search option everytime I want to find a contact. Perhaps other users like this, and if so, perhaps it should be a configurable option.

For my purposes, I am no longer using Agenda One's contacts function and will not until these usability issues are resolved. Are these features being considered in a future release?

[Alex_DevOne]

I would think it's fair to say that I use the search function (pressing keys to spell last name) nearly 100% of the time to find a contact, so for me it is imperative that the described functionality works on contacts found via the search function.

I don't see the logic in keeping the last search results active. If I wanted to call the same person again, I would simply press the dial button and pick from the last of calls. Using Agenda One contacts forces me to perform your Clear Search option everytime I want to find a contact. Perhaps other users like this, and if so, perhaps it should be a configurable option.

For my purposes, I am no longer using Agenda One's contacts function and will not until these usability issues are resolved. Are these features being considered in a future release?
Yes, these are things that we are still looking at.