Windows Phone (7) Calendar

Something I've been wondering for a long time:

If you open the calendar on a wp7 phone (I don't know if this is the case on wp8 too) and switch to month view the days on which you have appointments booked will show some text. This text is too small/my phone screen too low resolution to be seen clearly, even in landscape mode where it is at its largest. My question is this:

What does the text say? It doesn't seem to be related to the event I have in my calendar because the same event across two different days will display different text. It may just be my eyes but some of the lines of text appear to read "Help from Seattle". Is this some kind of easter egg, or something? Or are my eyes just playing tricks on me?

I have never found that thing to be of any use. it sucks!

The text is just a placeholder indicating that something is there on that day.

Like Ian says, it looks like a placeholder just to visually show something. The only alternative would be to show the number of items on that day with a (5) or something, but then the UI would just be a clutter of numbers.

Just imagine a paper calendar on the wall on the other side of the office. You can't read what is there, but you can see that something is on the day. Same with the WP calendar.

Lorem ipsum

 

http://lipsum.com/

@GoddersUK: it is one of the case where MS has no common sense and users are failed to hype the problem on user voice , thus, it is not fixed on WP8. Honesty I just want a small event square with matching calendar color indicates there is an event. Because the text is tiny and faint, it is hard to even know there is an event without squeezing my eyes.

14 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

@GoddersUK: it is one of the case where MS has no common sense and users are failed to hype the problem on user voice , thus, it is not fixed on WP8. Honesty I just want a small event square with matching calendar color indicates there is an event. Because the text is tiny and faint, it is hard to even know there is an event without squeezing my eyes.

I like the pseudo-text look -- as Harlequin said, it looks like a wall calendar across the room.  I certainly prefer it to 'a small event square'.

This discussion is subjective, there is no right answer.

Herbie

@Dr Herbie: I had no idea they did this. I like it as well, better than just an abstract shape. I'd just prefer the lines to be colored using the calendar colors.

@magicalclick: It's not about reading the text on the month-view, it's about "you have stuff on this day"...then you click the day, and you get details of the day:

@Harlequin: yes, except the text are faint and I have an eye strain looking at it. If just telling me there is something that day, just give me a big ! mark for all I care. My eyes hurt looking at monthly view.

39 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

@Harlequin: yes, except the text are faint and I have an eye strain looking at it.

Then, stop looking at it?

 

Though, I do think that it should be a bunch of scribbles instead of actual (fake) text. My eye sight is good and I can still read it perfectly, so it's just strange to see latin on my calendar. Very minor annoyance, really.

I don't understand why they couldn't put a snippet of the real text on that screen.  My eye sight is decent and I knew a friend's wedding was happening sometime in summer... so I switched to month view and scrolled through the summer months looking for his name... Dylan.  I assumed the D-y-l would stand out... and as I looked through the months, I didn't see that pattern.  And then I looked closer and noticed that the text was not real data.

The visual effect from what they did looks ok, but it's not functional enough for me since I have so many calendars sync'ing to my phone, I have junk going on most days.  So, I'd rather see tiny real text, instead of the lorem ipsum.

23 hours ago, Harlequin wrote

Just imagine a paper calendar on the wall on the other side of the office. You can't read what is there, but you can see that something is on the day. Same with the WP calendar.

Ahh... hadn't thought about a "real" calendar

56 minutes ago, GoddersUK wrote

*snip*

Ahh... hadn't thought about a "real" calendar

But yeah, it should have some real snippets and not Latin. Even if it's only "Birthday Jim Kr" and "Meeting at Wilbury Ce"...

Is this perhaps a data thing? Where it doesn't load appointment details until you go to that specific day to save bandwidth?

19 hours ago, MasterPie wrote

*snip*

Then, stop looking at it?

 

Though, I do think that it should be a bunch of scribbles instead of actual (fake) text. My eye sight is good and I can still read it perfectly, so it's just strange to see latin on my calendar. Very minor annoyance, really.

you are confused about my message here. I want an indicator that can be identified 10 feet away without trouble. If you can do that now, great for you. I have grandpa eyes, I have trouble comparing the current block square and 99 percent black square that tells me that day has an event. Yes, MS should ignore people with grandpa eye, I understand your argument. But, that's so discriminating users who doesn't have a good eye sight as you.

20 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

*snip*you are confused about my message here. I want an indicator that can be identified 10 feet away without trouble. If you can do that now, great for you. I have grandpa eyes, I have trouble comparing the current block square and 99 percent black square that tells me that day has an event. Yes, MS should ignore people with grandpa eye, I understand your argument. But, that's so discriminating users who doesn't have a good eye sight as you.

Phones are not designed to be viewed from 10 feet away so complaining the UI doesn't work at that distance is unrealistic. From 10 feet away I cannot see ANY detail on any app on my phone.

Herbie

3 minutes ago, Dr Herbie wrote

*snip*

Phones are not designed to be viewed from 10 feet away so complaining the UI doesn't work at that distance is unrealistic. From 10 feet away I cannot see ANY detail on any app on my phone.

Herbie

thank you point out what I said about unrealistic requirement. You can just quote that part instead of the whole message. Thank you.