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Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

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Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#21

Post by 1_2__3 »

alooPotato wrote: post #19
1_2__3 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Google has been trying to dumb down their services and products for years, to the point where the UI is something even a baby or old person with dementia can use it. For the most recent example of this see the latest update to the YouTube app for iPhone - they managed to make an already austere interface completely bare-bones, to the point where the main "home page" is entirely useless. They do this to product a…

As a power user I find the mobile version more useful. Creating a new event on mobile is actually easier than on desktop. I want that same power on desktop too

How?

For the simple case, on web: Click the time I want to put in an event for, type in a name, click "Create Event". Even if somehow you managed to simplify further "I want to do something at this time - I want it to be named this - I am done" I'm not sure the world benefits from that being easier.

For the more complicated case... Really? I admit I haven't played with it on Android in some time, but is it really easier to, say, create a new event, invite 4 people, add a conference room, select a time that works for everyone, make it repeat Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a reminder 10m before and 20m before? Because if so I'm honestly surprised - that they even offer all that functionality at all, let alone that it's easier on mobile.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#22

Post by jeremysmyth »

samstave wrote: post #11

Uh... It doesn't account for travel time. This app should only suggest times that have at least 15 mins between all meetings.

Depends entirely on the person. If you work remotely, 'travel time' is the length of time it takes to make a phone call. If you collect cash, it could be an awful lot more.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#23

Post by gargs »

pducks32 wrote: post #8

I would love Apple to add some of this stuff to Calendar. I believe Calender is now on iCloud so interoperability is hard but that would also be great. Come on Apple I believe in you!

iOS already does this, at least for exchange calendars. It is quite beautifully implemented, too. It breaks down suggested time slots by attendance.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#24

Post by euphemize »

Interesting. Had a google interview not too long ago, and this was exactly the question asked to me - how would you design an algorithm to find overlapping free time from person X, Y and Z. I guess they got more practical with their questions over the years.

Looks great, liking that is suggests times too.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#25

Post by SaidinWoT »

1_2__3 wrote: post #21
alooPotato wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a power user I find the mobile version more useful. Creating a new event on mobile is actually easier than on desktop. I want that same power on desktop too

How? For the simple case, on web: Click the time I want to put in an event for, type in a name, click "Create Event". Even if somehow you managed to simplify further "I want to do something at this time - I want it to be named this - I am done" I'm not sure the world benefits from that being easier. For the more complicated case... Really? I admit I haven't played with it on Android in some time, but is it really eas…

You should be pleasantly surprised, then! All of the functionality you included in your complicated case exists directly on the event creation page. "Select a time that works for everyone" was the last one missing, and this update is of course just that.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#26

Post by falcolas »

I'm going to guess that this only works if you're meeting with people who all have Google calendars. Within this limitation, the web interface has been capable of this for quite some time ("Find a Time" tab or "Suggested Times" when creating an event).

Of course, not everybody uses Google as their calendar provider, but that would be a harder (if more interesting) problem to solve.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#27

Post by kuschku »

samstave wrote: post #11

Uh... It doesn't account for travel time. This app should only suggest times that have at least 15 mins between all meetings.

Or you could tell everyone to treat times as c.t. (cum tempora). Then you got your academic quarter of travel time.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#28

Post by CardenB »

euphemize wrote: post #24

Interesting. Had a google interview not too long ago, and this was exactly the question asked to me - how would you design an algorithm to find overlapping free time from person X, Y and Z. I guess they got more practical with their questions over the years. Looks great, liking that is suggests times too.

Isn't that just a bit wise AND?

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#29

Post by quanticle »

Karunamon wrote: post #13
tdkl wrote: post #12

Can't wait until Google decides that viewing the calendar agenda should be done by seeing one event at the time on the screen (newest YouTube update) [1]. Seriously Google, can this waste of space shit just stop ? [1] http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/04/27/youtube-redesigns-ho...

Google's design language is positively infuriating. Here's this beautiful phone with a great display space for much more information than before... ...and we'll reduce density and just make everything huge with eye-searing primary colors. WTF!

It's because Android has to scale across such a wide range of device types and sizes. If you look closely at Material Design, you'll notice that pretty much everything can be implemented with vector graphics. The primary colors serve a similar purpose. Not every phone has the ability to display high resolution images, but even the lowest of lowest-end Android phones can display "red" and "blue". The same thing applies to the information density. Displaying information at a comfortable density on something like a Nexus 4 means that the same information displayed on a Nexus 6P (or Samsung Galaxy S7 or what-have-you) is going to look blown-up and sparse. It's even worse when you go to tablets.

I think Google has really dropped the ball when it comes to designing their own apps. Rather than putting in the time and effort to make apps that scale properly (e.g. displaying different amounts of information on different screen sizes) they took the lazy way out and just scaled up the white-space between list and UI elements. And of course, Android application developers are following Google's lead in this regard. This is why there are so few applications that are designed for Android tablets. Whereas Apple's iPad apps look and work substantially differently from their iPhone counterparts (as you'd expect), Google apps on Android tablets look like scaled up and blown out versions of their phone counterparts, with the attendant losses in usability.

Re: Google Calendar for Android: Find a time for my meeting

#30

Post by mistermann »

1_2__3 wrote: post #15
alooPotato wrote: post #2

Does anyone know why Calendar is getting a ton of new features on mobile but the web app gets no love?

Yes. Google has been trying to dumb down their services and products for years, to the point where the UI is something even a baby or old person with dementia can use it. For the most recent example of this see the latest update to the YouTube app for iPhone - they managed to make an already austere interface completely bare-bones, to the point where the main "home page" is entirely useless. They do this to product a…

> Google has been trying to dumb down their services and products for years, to the point where the UI is something even a baby or old person with dementia can use it.

In the process they're making it that technical people cannot (or, have great difficulty) using them, such as gmail. (I very often don't notice attachments, or can't find them, I have great difficulty following threads, I have to hit a button to cc: or to change the subject, etc etc etc)

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