Membranophonist’s Ramblings

Mike Davidson posted a critique of the number of steps required to change battery life-extending settings on the iPhone. Off the top of my head, I proposed what I mocked up and posted below; an always available means of switching among configurations.

1. Tap the battery icon at the top right of the screen. This target is potentially problematic given the relatively small size and its proximity to other controls.
   
   
2. Tap the name of a configuration to activate it or the disclosure button to the right of the label to view/edit its details. The Add button opens an Untitled configuration with the default iPhone settings.
   
   
3. Edit the settings by sliding one or more sliders or tap the oval to edit the configuration name.
   
   
4. Edit the name and tap Done. The sliders remain manipulable.
   
   
5. The configuration has been renamed. Tap the OK button to return to the configurations list.
   
   

November 12 Update: Minor changes to better follow iPhone conventions, larger thumbnails with alpha channels.

Based on iPhoto 7.1.3.

General

1. Clicking the bottom left Info pane while viewing a single photo switches back to the library/album view rather than allowing input.
2. When viewing a day with multiple events, dropping one event poster on another should combine the events.
3. Due to the distance of the search/filter field from the Library source list items, it would be nice if the magnifying glass was displayed at the right of the item being searched to make it more obvious that a search or filter was in effect. A small touch I find helpful in Contactizer.
   
   
4. When viewing individual images, it is not clear when videos are presented, possibly leading people to believe they are simply out-of-focus still images. Displaying the video camera icon within the photo pane would help.
5. When viewing an event, Command-Left and Right Arrow should navigate through events in the sorting order selected in the View menu > Sort Events.
6. Control- or right-clicking in the bottom toolbar area should present the same Show in Toolbar sub-menu found in the View menu.
7. The kerning of event titles is poor with some letter combinations. Notice the space between the T and o in “Toy”.
   
   

Keywords

1. The Keywords search is generally good, but you can’t type in Boolean queries once you learn the syntax. I’d like to be able to just type “Seattle or Tacoma” rather than having to click Seattle, depress the Shift key, then click Tacoma. The point-and-click cursor-based interface is nice, but should augment a keyboard-based one.
2. Keyword letter shortcuts should be displayed and function when filtering via keywords.
3. A flip-around animation of the Keywords window would be nice when switching between the assignment and editing modes.
4. Displaying a small x next to applied keywords on the palette would make it easier for those with color perception abnormalities (particularly monochromats) to differentiate applied and non-applied keywords.
   
   
5. The default button on the confirmation dialog that appears when removing applied keywords from the available set should be relabeled “Remove”. Though I understand why this dialog is displayed, it really isn’t necessary given Undo support. Suspenders and a belt!
   
   

Fullscreen Mode

1. When in fullscreen viewing mode, the bottom toolbar should appear when the cursor touches anywhere along the bottom of the screen rather than requiring the user to scrub over the actual toolbar area, making it consistent with the Dock’s hiding behavior.
2. Rating assignment keyboard shortcuts (Command-1 through 5) do not work in fullscreen mode when the Information HUD has keyboard focus.

When importing, iPhoto should use the date and time the photos were taken and your calendar to suggest event names. For days with an all day event (such as a holiday) and time-specific events, the default suggestion should be the more specific event. Overlapping events could be handled by suggesting one and presenting other event titles as options.

Bonus points awarded for allowing embedding of location data (XMP address, city, state/province, ZIP fields) if present in the calendar event’s location field. This embedding would probably be off by default for privacy reasons.