Accessibility in web and program design is generally targetted at people with disabilities. Not always, of course. There’s a school of thought that accessibility also allows able-bodied people to use the program as they prefer, not just how the program dictates.

The reason I keep pestering YF about accessibility in his design is because he’s definitely someone who knows his shit, design and programming-wise, he’s well read on the topic and obviously has very strong opinions on what he thinks is right design.

He’s also somewhat prolific.

So, if YF were to start using accesible design techniques in his work and writing/podcasting about it, it would help go some way towards making accessibilty in web design a new trend, something sorely needed. Yes, I’m trying to use his internet fame for my own ends :P But he’s already mentioned that he would try implementing accessible design later on in the development of Orchestrate, which I’m glad about.

YF> the visual design of your application is fine. I do like it. I like the drag-and drops, I just like having choices as well. I realise that it’s your application, built for your needs but I still hope that you can implement the most basic keyboard shortcuts for accessibility’s sake, since you are releasing this to the general public.

It would be virtually invisible to the average user but be there for whoever needs it. It should also only be a few extra lines of code, so it shouldn’t cause too much bloat, or be too much extra work. Everything else I suggested you can disregard, but I hope you can jump on the acccessibility bandwagon.

Come on come on, Bring it! (the productivity tool, I mean)

If you think about it, Orchstrate was created to solve YF’s needs because there wasn’t a satifactory solution, so it stands that the design should follow his intentions.

Also, as someone who takes great interest and pride in UI design, I take offense to the suggestion that I haven’t thought things through. Chidade accuses me of using drag and drop because it’s “cool” whereas actually, in terms of user interface it makes a lot more sense than simply clicking around, in the case of Orchestrate.

For example, say I made it so that you simply click the green panels to open them up in the full view panel - where is the symbolic link between these two spaces? There is none. I’m simply clicking in one area and then things are popping up randomly in another - that’s a poor trait to have in a UI. With drag and drop I am dragging something TO the place it will appear, creating a fluid visual metaphor.

As another example - aside from the fact that a “trash bin” icon on each green pane would clutter up the UI - adding it to each panel doesn’t make sense as it is an action that you may never need to use. Its presence on a constant list such as “Daily Home Tasks” would be utterly pointless at best, and at worst, create the risk of you accidentally deleting the list when you don’t want to.

I really don’t want to have to keep explaining / justifying my design decisions. When Orchestrate gets released, I will welcome bug reports and will endeavor to fix them - but for the time being I’m going to stop responding to people who think they have ideas / features to contribute.

As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm, I’m really going to have to put my foot down and say that my design decisions are made for real reasons. I don’t want to (or have the time to) explain what those reasons are each time. If you enjoy Orchestrate, great. If it’s not your cup of tea, there’s lots of other solutions to choose from (scraps of paper worked well for me before Orchestrate!).

Cheers, YF

I’ll also suck your * since I sound like a pathetic whore already.

And whilst I welcome suggestions, it feels like you are attempting to micromanage. I’ve told you where I stand, it’s not really your job to try to “convince” me otherwise.

No, you’re right, I did mean accessibility. Keyboard shortcuts would ultimately be best but I still don’t think it would hurt or bloat the application too much with some small icon in a corner. Still, if you add keyboard shortcuts, that would solve the issue without changing the look of what you have.

To be honest, I think that your drag-and-drop function probably falls into your wouldn’t-it-be-cool category rather than something that everyone already knows and is familiar with, ie: a small X in the corner to close. Accessibility also applies to able-bodied people too, don’t forget. Some people like having a choice between keyboard shortcuts, pointing and clicking with a mouse and a favourites-style toolbar. My idea is not really about how cool it looks, but rather how it feels to use.

Minimalism is nice and all but maybe you’re getting a bit too zen? ;)

I think you are talking more about accessibility, in terms of keystrokes or accommodating people who aren’t using / can’t use a mouse. I’ll do my best to make the site more accessible as time goes on, but I’m never going to add features / bloat that I think will be detrimental to the user experience of the majority, and I’m always of the mind that more people benefit from me removing the unnecessaries than they do from me adding the wouldn’t-it-be-cools.

I’m not saying remove the drag and drops, but it would be nice to be able to expand it by double clicking as well. I think the small green task boxes may need a small X or trash can icon in the titlebar to avoid dragging it onto the red X.

Or, of course, have keyboard shortcuts. Highlight a green box and press Enter to expand or Delete to delete.

Otherwise, nice app. Simplicity is good but usability is paramount!

As a developer (low-level stuff, more prone to security-related bugs) I actually welcome bug-reports of that kind.