I’ve had several requests to add multiple-user support to CRON-o-Meter. While fairly easy to add, and obviously helpful for some households with shared computers, I am reluctant to add it on ideological grounds.
All modern operating systems, and CRON-o-Meter only runs on ‘modern’ operating systems, have multiple user support. They all have accounts and log-ins. CRON-o-Meter stores user settings in the appropriate location for the currently logged on user. It is my contention that it already has multiple user support. If you share a computer, and you’re not using the built-in accounts and fast-user switching features of your operating system, I would tend to argue that you are misusing your computer. Why should every program you use re-invent this basic account handling already done by the operating system? If anything, I believe it should be discouraged so that more people switch to properly using their computers!
It’s amazing how much thought ends up going into user interface design. It can be quite a process. A never-ending cycle of experimenting and refining.
As mentioned below, I expect many CRON-o-Meters to dislike the major change I made to the main window. What I did was to remove the entire left-side food search panel, and place it in a pop-up dialog box. I expect users to initially dislike this change because it feels like something was taken away. Many people fear change, and initially I was quite against this idea myself. I have a natural tendency to favor embedded reactive interface elements over pop-up modal dialogs.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this design choice, and playing with various different implementations. The initial decision was one of consistency and metaphor. A good user interface has to be consistent. It is also good if there is an underlying metaphor to the design. When we can link the abstract concepts in a program into something more physical, our minds operate more naturally. Witness the success of the original Macintosh, which relied on the metaphors of a desktop, file folders, waste baskets, and so on.
In the older CRON-o-Meter, the placement of the food search panel was inconsistent at times. For instance, if you are editing your biomarkers, it doesn’t make sense to be searching for foods — and in fact you can blindly add foods to your day’s list. I wanted to focus the program more on the metaphor of showing the single day. There’s a boldly visible date at the top, and everything else beneath should apply to the day in question. By taking the panel and making it a pop-up from within the servings list, it makes more sense.
While bouncing these issues back and forth with Gerald, a new volunteer with the project, Gerald had an excellent idea for the future versions to use a unified metaphor for both foods, biomarkers, and exercise. I’m excited about that next step — its going to be really cool. The new organization will make a lot more sense.
The second issue in good UI design is to streamline the things a user does most frequently. By far, the most common thing a user in CRON-o-Meter does is search for foods and choose amounts to add to their log. At first glance, it feels like the pop-up dialog adds an extra step in this process — you have to click a button to show the dialog. However, if you count the steps between the old version and the new version, the new version requires less user-input.
In the old version, you have to click the mouse into the search field. If the search field contains text from a previous search, you have to select and delete the old text, then type in the new search term. Then you have to select a food from the list, then choose a serving and add it.
In the new version you either have to click the “Add Serving” button (or type the keyboard short-cut). This brings up the dialog with the keyboard focus already in the search box, ready to type, so it actually saves a step over the old version.
There are also many ways to accelerate through data entry with the keyboard. If you used the keyboard short-cut, then you don’t even have to move your hand to the mouse. If the top ranked search result is what you’re looking for, hitting tab twice will auto-select it. When you select a food, the keyboard focus automatically transfers to the amount field. Hitting enter after typing an amount will automatically add the food. Tab will select the Measure menu and you can use the arrow keys to page through them. You can actually enter foods without ever touching the mouse.
A third important aspect is Simplicity, without compromising the power of the application, and without harming the first two considerations. Moving the search panel simplifies and clarifies the main window. It presents less to a new user and helps focus them on their task.
I certainly can’t claim to be a great UI designer. It’s a hard (but fun) process for me. I feel I’m always getting better, but there’s so much room for improvement. I do try to put a lot of though into it all. To me, it’s a matter of craftmanship. I’m interested to hear if y’all agree with my overall analysis here. Especially those with discriminating tastes towards user interface design (you know who you are!).
Ahh, a nice big fat upgrade for CRON-o-Meter. This one has a major change to the main window. I know some people are going to hate the change, so I’m now bracing for impact. They’ll come around…. Besides that, lots of little nips and tucks, bug squashing, and UI improvements made it into 0.7:
- Simplified main window with pop-up food searches.
- Improvements to main nutritional summary display.
- Added toolbar button to copy previous day’s items to the current day.
- Added toolbar button to return to the current day.
- Several windows and dialogs are now resizable
- Search results are scored using a smarter formula
- Simplified HTML in Nutritional Report export
- Added cut, copy, and paste shortcuts to selected servings
- Removed beep when typing a decimal as first digit of a measure
- Fixed several bugs with save/cancel of foods and recipes
- Fixed bug in DRI suggestions: Women were being given values for men.
Ever have one of those dreams where you’re running from something and somehow the viscosity of the unvierse has been dialed up to 11 and you barely make any ground? Well it was like that last night as I was walking to the office in the extreme winds we’re getting lately. I was at a 45 degree angle in a full-on sprint, yet taking only inches of ground. As I rounded the corner I got the wind at my back and proceeded to hop along the sidewalk like an apollo moon hopper. I giggled all the way.
I’ve been oh so very busy, but that’s no excuse to squeeze in a quickie post. We moved out of the Stephen’s Hall Hotel in Downtown Dublin, out to a massive penthouse apartment owned by the company which is next to the office — literally on the edge of the city. It’s open fields in one direction and city in the other. We’ll be there temporarily while we look for our own place. It’s nice being close to work as my commute is a 5-minute walk. However, that’s about all this location has going for it. There’s nothing but traffic and housing out here.
I’ve been working very hard at work on a major server revision that’s very important to the company. I can’t say anything else, but it’s a big piece of work. It’s been a slog, but in some sick sort of way, I’m enjoying it too.
Even sicker is that I coded most of Sunday and Monday night on some *major* revisions to the CRON-o-meter. My productivity and creativity comes in waves like this. I’m in one of those super productive high-concentration modes now and code flows from my fingertips like…like…ALPHABET SOUP! My motivation to work on CRON-o-Meter has picked up recently because it’s becoming a popular program amongst CRONies, dieters, and diabetics. Also, the project has picked up a new volunteer coder, Gerald. Version 0.7 is shaping up to be a pretty massive release. We’ll probably have it out the door in a few weeks.
Currently Listening to: Sexy Results by Death From Above 1979
Well, I had a lovely christmas vacation back in the land of frost and snow. We’re back in downtown Dublin ready to celebrate the new orbit.
Christine & I had a fun time earlier in the week learning to snowmobile in the deep powder on her parent’s farm. The thing about snowmobiling in powder, we learned, is that normal steering is very inneffective. With much effort you can gradually force a wide turning radius through the snow. Christine’s brother Brian taught us how to turn like the pros. It’s counter-intuitive, but you steer in the opposite direction you want to turn, and lean your body weight into the turn. This causes the skidoo to sink into the powder and flip on it’s side. The first few times I tried this, I flipped it right over, and fell off. The trick is to play with the throttle and your body weight to find the sweet balancing point between being completely on your side but not quite tipping. The throttle provides thrust to keep from flipping, and forces the skidoo into a tight turn. Super-fun.
Damnit, I let several weeks go by without posting again. I hate when that happens. I’m back in Edmonton right now. My 90-day visit to Ireland was up so I had to leave the country for a bit, so I took a christmas vacation. That’s a lower-case-‘v’-vacation, as I end up working a few hours each day anyhow… I still haven’t got my work-permit or residency status in Ireland. I’m being told now I shall be freed from bureaucratic purgatory sometime in January or February.
I’ve been writing a big blog-post / essay on some of the theology/science/evolution topics discussed earlier, but I’ve only gotten through a partial draft so who knows when that tasty content shall make an appearance.
I’ve been kicking around the house, getting lots of cuddle-time in with my cat who can’t join us in Ireland until she’s out of quarantine in another month. On Saturday I went to the BioTools christmas party which was good fun. I hung out at the BioTools office yesterday, played a little foozball and had a peek at their top-secret product developments.
I just had a meeting with a tax accountant. This year with the living abroad, renting out our house, self-empllyment, stock options, and a slew of other random financial matters have really made that whole tax thing too complicated for my little brain to work out, without crying. It appears they’ll be recommending I use the simplified revenue canada tax form:
Another minor bump to the software:
* Fixed a bug that could lead to corruption and loss of food history
* Reworked the flow of the target settings
* DRI calculations added for calories
* P:F:C nutrient targets default to 30:40:30, with customizable ratios
My Pa has his website up again. Check out his galleries, in particular his newest creation, the flying carpet. The photos don’t do it justice, but have a look at the close-ups to see the stitching detail. He’s been working on it for years and just recently finished it. It’s #!$@’n marvelous! Also be sure to check out his short movie Paths & Portals, an awesome whirl through the huge body of work he’s produced over the past decade.
Oh SNAP!
Father, It’s been over a week since my last post. Forgive me for I have postponed.
Catch up time. I have 100 posts ideas needing writing, and never the time or energy to sit down and write them. Honestly, writing is such a chore for me. That’s actually one of the main reasons I started this blog in the first place — a public front forces me to practice writing. I am an excessively nebulous thinker. Serializing my thoughts into strings of english words is a challenging task. Before I can get to the philosophical musings, however, you all must endure a ‘here’s all the shit that’s happening in my day-to-day-life’ posts. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. I just write here.
In case you missed it, Christine’s been in a posting frenzy and has some good articles on her blog. Last weekend we went to London for 3 days. I’m too lazy to write it all up, so head over there as well to see pictures and some details of the trip. It was funny however that everywhere I went I kept pointing at things that related to Neil Stephenson’s Quicksilver historical-fiction trilogy. St. Paul’s Cathedral was damned impressive. We climbed all the way to the very top (more than 400 steps) where you can overlook a full panorama of London.
This Wednesday we saw tool at the The Point, here in Dublin. Kick-ass show, great musicians. For the uninitiated, tool are the a brilliant modern progressive hard-rock band. Back in the days when Christine and I met and still had 1’s as the first digit of our ages, we always danced hard when tool came on in the goth/industrial/metal night-club where we first met.
