All designers have a favorite creation. One of my mine was the ability to show new invitations in users’ calendars. As a feature it was simple, elegant, and directly addressed a customer pain point.
Early on in the redesign of the IBM calendar, I was struck by how users were forced to rely on their mail Inbox to complete calendar tasks. New invitations arrived by mail, requiring users to leave the context of their calendar to get essential information. But from within the inbox the users couldn’t see the calendar to decide if they would accept or decline the meeting forcing them to flip back and forth between two tabs to make a decision. It was a problem we referred to as “flood and scatter” where the user had increased noise in one context (e.g. the mail inbox) and at the same time had to flip back and forth between multiple contexts to accomplish key tasks (e.g. moving between the mail and calendar tabs before accepting a meeting).
I designed calendar entries representing new invitations, rescheduled meetings, and cancellations. These entries appeared automatically in the calendar and enabled users to be aware of these significant events without having to leave the context of their calendars. Users could select the entries and have common actions (such as “Accept” and “Decline”) available from within the context of the calendar (as opposed to having to open the forms to take the action).
These entries represented a significant technological challenge, but with the help of user feedback on early designs, I was able to make a case that the effort would be rewarded.
You know you’re onto something when your feature gets a nickname. In this case, the new invitations, which had a gray background, were lovingly referred to as “ghosts” and quickly became a favorite feature with our users.
There are plenty of other designs I’m proud of, but “ghosts” are always at the top of my list.
