Usability Review of OpenMoko GTK+ Applications

[Clarke Wixon]

Thomas Wood <thomas at ...> writes:

> I agree, users will want to use and abuse the address book application,
> and the best application will allow them to do that without being a
> burden to the majority use cases. In the interests of getting something
> stable and usable as quickly as possible, I opted to restrict the
> features in the application.

This seems like a fair tradeoff for the initial cut at the apps, but frankly, in
a smartphone/pda I want to be able to have everyone's full contact information
in one place.  And eventually (of course) I want it all to sync with my desktop.

For example, If I'm on my way to the post office and need someone's home or
business address, I want to be able to get it from the contacts app.

As was suggested above, perhaps name/email/phone is a good set of default
fields, but it should be easy to add the others (postal addresses, birthdays,
spouse name, notes, etc.) -- frankly, everything that is available in Evolution
-- via an "add field" drop-down that applies to only the current contact being
edited.

Or better still, in addition to being able to add arbitrary fields, it would be
nice to have some templates to start with (personal contact, business contact,
etc.), each of which would have an appropriate set of default fields enabled.

Of course, it IS possible to have the basic OM contacts application and
something like Pimlico contacts both available on the same device, using the
same database, and perhaps that is preferable.  As long as one doesn't corrupt
the other's data.