When adding and editing tasks on the iPhone I always see options I either never use or very rarely use, and often have to scan up and down for the option I want to tap on. It feels cluttered compared to apps like Things, Todoist etc.
It would be really useful (at least to me) to be able to hide some options under a generic ‘More…’ sub menu to leave only the options I use all the time visible.
For adding tasks, instead of the default view on the left, personally I would just show the options in the right image
And for editing tasks my choice on the right would be much simpler than the default on the left
I really love the mockups you’ve created here! The UI for adding tasks has often felt crowded, especially so since the recent addition of the Duration field, which I have no use for.
Personally I use contexts (though I still haven’t settled on exactly how) so I would prefer to keep them on the main screen. This also seems to be how Omni has structured OF so removing contexts would seem a step backward for most users.
The core features I use all the time:
Project/Context (these are really just 2 ways to categorize projects, vertically & horizontally)
Flag
Defer
Due
This is a nice grouping because short-term memory realistically only holds four items not seven. It also tightly restricts choice to the core so the user feels more like interacting directly with the information instead of fiddling with a bunch of interface buttons.
The exception is that I use Repeat often enough that it would be nice to have it on the main screen (and this seems to match up with the idea of easily creating recurring tasks). But I rarely use Estimated Duration or any of the blue ones.
Normally I would want delete tucked away since it is destructive, but since OF has an apparently robust undo function it’s not really an issue, so delete can stay on the main screen as well. It’s red so it would appear different than the four (or five) main features, so it would chunk differently.
Moving the Move, Convert to Project, and Share buttons off the main screen also avoids the ugly red/blue clash which to me looks jarring.
Yeah, most users would use Contexts, so my example isn’t a suggestion that Contexts should be hidden by default. Just an example of how I would have it setup (I only use Contexts for location based alerts, and not too often either).
Your preferred setup looks like a good default one for most users (at least I think so).
One option also would be to allow the user to choose what buttons are displayed on the main screen. The Anki flashcard system is extremely configurable in this regard, allowing the user to configure every button on the toolbar (even choosing the number of buttons) as well as configuring actions to take on any of six “tap zones” arrayed around the flash card (i.e. tap in one area to move to the next card, tap another to mark it as needing further review, etc).
So configuration can certainly be done in iOS, though I’m personally not sure how it is done in that app, or whether OF2 (or rather the libraries/APIs/etc that it uses) can actually do that.
