

Why I built my latest project, pat.io - kylebragger
http://patio.tumblr.com/post/84698820/why-another-to-do-app

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g_lined
Hi there, here are my thoughts:

Overall very good. I like the URL recognition. Here're my nitpicks:

General: * If we select the time zone, let us know whether you've taken into
account DST. * I would prefer an e-mail-less signup process as I don't feel
there's a need for it. AFAICS password retrieval is the only use and I can't
see any evidence you've implemented that. Why do I have to give an email
address if I don't even need it to log-in? For the free service, I think you
should consider ditching the need for email addresses. * To-do, unless a
branding decision, should not be capitalised unless grammar dictates
otherwise. c.f. 'Add this To-do' button. * Consider moving the 'Add this To-
do' button to the side of the to-do entry box. * Consider changing OS-native
buttons to graphic/css buttons which fit in with the style/colouring of your
site.

Ease of use: * Whenever I can see the to-do list, any typing whatever should
go into the text box. You can do this with a javascript key bind. Why should I
have to deal with clicks and focus when the only point of that page is to jot
down items and tick them off? * Personally, I would advocate a log-in boxes on
the front page as well as signup boxes, but I guess that's a design choice. *
Why insist on alphanumeric only usernames particularly as this isn't a
restriction for passwords? As a minimalist site, I shouldn't have to worry
about what I type in, or be informed about the rules until I break them. The
rules should be (as far as possible - and this is where the 'art' of design
comes in) the same as I assume. Therefore, unless you have a technical issue,
I suggest you allow as many punctuation and non latin characters as possible
for both passwords and usernames. Only when I try and use one that's not
possible to use due to technical limitations do you apologise and give me the
rules. * It's difficult to delete many items. I don't mind hitting delete
myself many times, but the delete button only comes up when you go over the
main part of the to-do list meaning there's a lot of mouse movement to delete.
If that's a design choice/attempt to stop accidental deletions, fair enough,
otherwise it would be good to have it changed.

Bug: * If you manage to click/select the input box before the page has loaded
you can end up with the wrong font and no 'Add this To-do' button.
Additionally, pressing return doesn't actually add the to-do although it still
brings up the 'Hang tight' box.

As I said, good site!

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks very much. I'll digest all of these and see what I can come up with.

On the email issue, I may just ditch usernames, as I need email for password
recovery (didn't get to build that yet), plus one or two email based features.

Thanks so much for taking the time to really analyze the site and provide this
great feedback.

------
brk
Admittedly, I'm somewhat confused why you posted this here.

You're not accepting new accounts, and the blog post is a couple of paragraphs
saying that you wanted to re-invent the to-do app, but there is nothing
concrete.

I wish you luck, it _sounds_ like there is a lot of potential, just nothing
verifiable yet.

~~~
kylebragger
Hi - I posted the blog post vs. the direct link thinking the blog post is a
decent intro to the app, and people could click through to signup if they so
chose.

The signups were limited to 15 per day, but I bumped that to 250 (that should
be live now).

I think the gist of what I want to do is not so much re-invent the wheel, per
se, but simply re-imagine _my own_ to-do system into a web app, and share that
with others; perhaps someone else will find it as useful as I have.

~~~
dotcoma
I think it would be great if I could set my to-do list for the following day
(as this is what I usually try to do at night for the coming day).

~~~
kylebragger
You can actually "hack" pat.io to do this. Add the items you want on
tomorrow's list, and then hover over each one and click "Shift" - the item
will disappear until tomorrow.

~~~
dotcoma
nice, thanks. one more small feature request: I'd love to be able to reorder
my list on the fly, for example by dragging all the completed tasks towards
the top of the list and the still-to-be-completed ones towards the bottom -
something I can't do on paper :)

~~~
kylebragger
coming soon :)

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khangtoh
I like the SMS integration, here's a suggestion: use twitter for free SMS.
Basically create a Twitter bot, ask users to follow your Twitter bot. Then all
they need to do is to tweet their Todos, DM or @, both ways should work just
the same.

This saves you on paying for SMS while adding a really cool feature - adding
todos using Twitter.

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm recovering from a bike accident, so having a
marathon coding session is a bit hard right now, but I'll definitely try to
build that. I can enable actual SMS for your account if you email your
username to kyle AT pat.io -- should work for most countries

------
extension
The personal organizer software problem is a tricky one. It is unique in that
even the slightest inconvenience or diversion in the workflow can render the
application unusable, because the very purpose of the app is to offload that
sort of trivia from your mind.

Because everyone has different habits and thought patterns, there is no one
workflow that suits everyone and the cognitive overhead introduced by a
flexible workflow, while tolerable in other kinds of applications, is show
stopping in a PIM app. Workflow for a particular person may also vary between
contexts e.g. work, home, hobbies, socializing, etc.

As such, I fully encourage the proliferation of todo apps with slight
variations in design. However, I believe that we will ultimately need
something highly adaptable that can be "programmed" to the detailed
specifications of each user. What sort of "programming" would be both remedial
enough for the layperson and flexible enough to cover the entire domain
remains a mystery.

FYI, I use this: <http://todoist.com>

~~~
kylebragger
Very well said. I built pat.io for that very reason - other things had been
unusable for me. Hopefully we do see the advent of a truly flexible, adaptable
system sooner than later.

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shaunxcode
I dig this actually and I am going to try it out for a week or two. The shift
feature and stats page are definitely cool features. Maybe add a simple
#tagging option so you can color code or filter your lists? I don't know if
that is breaking too far away from your minimalist approach - but as it would
just be "extra text" you can add "if you want" rather than more interface/gui
I figured it would be a nice addition.

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks! I have plans for hashtag-style support, definitely. Keeps things
simple, but also is a somewhat intuitive (esp. for Twitter users) approach.

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anatoly
You should give me a better reason to sign up than just saying it's a
minimalistic to-do app. A screenshot, a tour, anything.

Oh, I see you have a link to a nice screenshot buried under "Help". If you
were to bring this link out into an introductory sentence _before_ the sign-up
form, it's look much better.

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks for the feedback - I've updated the signup page to include some basic
"what is this" info and a link to learn even more.

~~~
anatoly
It looks better now.

Another thing is requiring both email and username. You didn't build a social
site, I don't need a username/nickname for anything. Usernames are annoying,
just another detail to remember. Just use email as ID; if you want to go an
extra mile, allow any id suggesting email address as the reasonable choice -
look at instapaper.com for inspiration.

~~~
kylebragger
Yeah, after this and a few other people mentioning it, I'm considering
ditching usernames.

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juliend2
the "Shift" feature seems like a good idea. I often find myself shifting a
task into another day.

~~~
khangtoh
will todos auto shift to the next day if it doesn't get check off before the
end of today?

~~~
kylebragger
Yep!

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killingmichael
I like how simple it is. Well done.

~~~
kylebragger
Thanks!

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Batsu
Out of curiosity, why did you limit sign ups?

Other than that, I like your approach. I find a lot of to-do apps out there
have a lot more in mind than just keep track of what you want to get done.

~~~
kylebragger
I limited signups while I make my hosting set up a bit more robust. Dev server
can't handle too much.

Thanks very much! I found that too. To-do apps have a habit of trying to be
too much.

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catone
You probably should have titled this with the traditional "Ask HN: Review my
startup ____" ... since I was expecting something different.

Anyway, seems like a nice, simple to-do list app. The shifts are a neat idea,
but I'd be concerned that once they're hidden from view, I'd forget about
them. Might be cool to have a ticker on the bottom that randomly displays
something from the shifts page every time I load up the to-do list. That way I
might be "accidentally" reminded of something I shifted a month ago and then
forgot about.

~~~
kylebragger
Apologies for the title. I'm a bit new to HN, and was unaware of the titling
styles. Should I edit the title?

Thanks for the feedback. The shifts actually are pushed back into your list
the following day. I'm planning on a "shift for N days/weeks" feature to delay
that longer than just 24 hours.

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jpd
It'd be nice if it saved old to-dos so you can retrieve your history and
remember what you've done.

~~~
kylebragger
Email support AT pat.io -- this is in development and I'd be happy to let you
test.

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entelarust
the description of how you handle your written/paper to-dos is the same as how
I do it normally.

i will try this out for a bit

