43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Suggestions to improve my GTD app idea

Hello everyone, I'm participating in the My Dream App contest. This is a contest where anyone can submit an idea for a Mac OS X application, and ultimately, there will be 3 winners whose ideas will be made into a shareware my the My Dream App team.

I have submitted an idea for a GTD application called Aguamente ("mind like water") and I'd greatly appreciate your feedback on it. It's uniqueness is in using animated tag clouds to visually and spatially represent Project and Next Actions. The size, color, 3d-depth, or other visual/spatial attributes represent priority/urgency/context etc. of the next action/project. I have a preliminary mockup you can view .

You can also view the My Dream App forum thread for Aguamente here, where I have explained the proposed features in detail. The mockup does not fully show the apps features, as it has no animation and also because I am not proficient with creating text effects. If it helps, please try to visualize the tags as Dashboard widgets in a 3D space, and with smarter overlays appearing when you click on them.

I propose to use lots of animation (powered by OS X Leopard's Core Animation technology) to animate the tag clouds. Examples:
* When you mouseover a tag, and do double click or Get info, the tag could turn into the header of a notebook page, with the rest of the page sliding into view with the info. The info could have text/images/music/video.
* Say a task is periodic. Once you check it as done, it fades, and then slowly reappears with new attributes. Example, if it is due every week, and if text 3d-depth denotes urgency, then, it fades from the "front" of the screen on completion, and reappears at the "back" of the screen.
* If you've left a next action undone for a long time, the text could start becoming "moldy", or some other relevant animation, which could even be user designable.
* When you check a task as done, it could turn into a paper airplane and swoop into a trash icon, or a completed tasks bin. When you check it as someday/maybe, it may turn into a cloud and float to a someday maybe icon.

There are lots of great ideas being tossed around in the My Dream App forums for all kinds of OS X apps. Do drop by, let us know what you think, and maybe submit your own idea (before Sep 1). Thank you.

TOPICS: Mac OS X

About shunker

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »