[moneydance] 2007 Beta

[Sean Reilly]

On 1/2/07, Christopher Le Dantec <christopher.ledantec at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hey,
>
> first off i want to say nice job. the subtle visual updates are well
> placed
> and the new spending / budget info on the home page is very useful. that
> said, i'm going to delve into a few interface issues / suggestions.


Thanks - I definitely appreciate it.



edit budget window
>
> -in the table if i edit a cell and click OK the change is not remembered.
> i
> have to move focus out of the cell first and then click ok. recommended
> behavior: make sure any event, focus change, click events store the cell
> value.


just fixed this for the second beta.

-the selection model is perhaps too 'efficient'. i understand that it's
> faster to immediately place the user in cell edit mode but it makes the
> feel
> unstable. recommended behavior: click once to select the row, single
> clicks
> in a selected row activate editing for the cell under the mouse; allow for
> multi-select of rows (makes it easier to calculate a budget and then clean
> it up).


Yes, I was going for "efficient" at first, but you're right that it makes it
too hard to deal with.  I also fixed this for beta2.


-what is the left most column in the table? there's not title and no cell
> values.


If you have budget items that conflict (same category for overlapping time
intervals) that column shows an alert icon for the conflicting items.

-enable column sorting.


The item list is self-sorting so that sub-categories are kept with their
parents, so I disabled column sorting.  Otherwise things get pretty
confusing.

-add running totals at the bottom -income and expense. otherwise it's a crap
> shoot if the spending is excessive.


Great idea.  I will need to add this to a future update though.

-make this (and the budget manager) non-modal. it's impossible to research
> expenses to include (or remove) from a budget without first closing the
> budget window.


I like it, but this will also have to be a future update.

a suggestion more likely to be ignored :-) re-work the budget interaction
> completely. drop the budget manager window and go directly to the edit
> window. to do this, change the Budget Name field to an editable combo-box.
> the user can select a budget they've created from the combo-box. typing in
> a
> new name == renaming. the last item in the combo-box, blow a separator,
> should be Save As. below the combo-box use the same + - buttons for adding
> a
> new or removing the selected budget. if this is something you're
> interested
> in, or you want more detail, let me know. i'd be happy to do a mockup. :-)


I think this is a good idea, we'll see if I can get it to work properly.  I
probably won't get a chance to do this for the general MD 2007 release, but
I put it in the trac (http://trac.moneydance.com/trac/ticket/861) along with
the unfinished items above.

budget report and budget graph.
>
> -it would be great if items / categories not in the budget showed up in
> the
> report and graph. in the budget report adding lines for each cat. not in
> the
> budget would help identify non-budgeted expenses / incomes. likewise in
> the
> graph, adding segments that indicate amount not actually budgeted would
> help
> identify holes in financial planning. the report could use italicized
> lines
> for non-budgeted items. the graph on the homepage could use brighter
> segments to identify non-budgeted amounts.


This is also planned but not yet completed.  I think it might end up being
an option since some people seem to not want unbudgeted expenses at all.

-in the budget report, under income, my budgeted income is 2600, the actual
> is noted as -2900 w/ a difference of 5500. this seems to be a bug bcs my
> income is actually +2900 so the difference should be 300. or maybe i'm
> reading something wrong...


This was a bug that is fixed for beta 2.

-the budget graph could do with some tool-tips. i'm not sure how to read it.
> what does the black/red triangle indicate? the length of the bar is money
> in
> / out and i'm assuming that is mirrored by the total on the right? it
> looks
> great but i need some scaffolding to understand it before it becomes
> scanable.


For beta 2 if you click on the budget graph it will show a (currently very
ugly) popup that includes all of the detailed numbers that went into the
graph.

expenses graph
>
> -tool-tips please. :-) the colors start to repeat at 7 so it becomes hard
> to
> see what's what. hovering over a colored segment in the graph should
> provide
> a tooltip w/ the name and numerical value. maybe a tooltip is unnecessary
> -you could highlight the item in the key below the bar. just something to
> make it easier to inspect what a segment is actually representing.


I just added the highlighting for beta2.  I would prefer tooltips, but I
couldn't make them work the way I liked.

once again, great job. the beta seems to be in good shape. my compliments to
> the chef. :-) most of the above are usability / interaction nits that i've
> come across in the first couple of days of use.


I appreciate the detailed feedback.  Keep it coming!  Also, if you want to
submit them as formal requests, feel free to register for a trac account:
http://trac.moneydance.com/trac/

Cheers!
Sean